Liberal Democrats Manifesto 2016

Liberal
Democrats

Manifesto 2015

Stronger Economy. Fairer Society.

Opportunity for Everyone.

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Manifesto 2015

Stronger Economy. Fairer Society.
Opportunity for Everyone.

Responsible Finances:

Balancing the budget in a fair way
Prosperity for all:

Building a sustainable economy
Real help for family finances:

Tax, pensions and consumer rights

An Opportunity Society:

World class education for all
Building a healthier society:

Protecting the NHS and improving health
Better places to live:

Communities farming and the natural environment

Green Britain Guarantee:
Five green laws

. Affordable homes for all:
Meeting our housing needs
Freedom and opportunity:
Equal rights for all
Secure communities:
Policing, justice and the border force
Power to the people:
Devolution democracy and citizenship

Britain in the World: Global action for
security and prosperity

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Dear friend,

When Liberal Democrats launched our 2010 General Election
manifesto, few people expected that many of the policies it
contained would be implemented by the next Government. But
that’s what happened: three quarters of those policies formed the
backbone of the Coalition’s programme.

Front-page commitments like raising the Income Tax threshold
and investing in the poorest schoolchildren through the Pupil
Premium became flagship Coalition policies.

With Liberal Democrats in Government to deliver them, those
policies have started the work of building a stronger economy and
a fairer society, with opportunity spread across the whole United
Kingdom.

Despite tough economic circumstances, those policies are making a
difference to people’s lives and helping make Britain a freer, greener,
more liberal country.

But our mission has only just begun. You can’t build a stronger
economy and a fairer society, and spread opportunity to every
citizen, in five years.

For the first time, this is a Liberal Democrat manifesto that builds
on arecord of policies delivered in national government.

We can say we will finish the job of balancing the books, but do
so fairly, because we have started that job in this Parliament.

We can say we will cut taxes for working people by raising the
tax-free allowance to £12,500 because we have raised the tax-free
allowance every year since 2010.

We can say we will protect funding for education from nursery to

19 because we have protected schools funding and invested in early

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years education in Government.

We can say we will increase health funding and invest in mental
health because we have protected the NHS budget in Government
and introduced the first ever waiting-time standards for mental
health.

And we can say we will protect our environment because we have
almost trebled the amount of electricity from renewable energy in
this Parliament.

In our fast-changing world, the fundamental question political
parties face is: do we want to continue to be an open society,
confident and optimistic about our place in the world, or do we want
to become a closed one, increasingly insular and backward-looking?
For Liberal Democrats there is only ever one answer: we want an
optimistic, open-hearted and outward-looking United Kingdom.

In Government for the next five years, Liberal Democrats will
continue to build a stronger economy and a fairer society with
opportunity for everyone. This manifesto sets out how.

Yours,
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Nick Clegg

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

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This manifesto is a five year plan to build a fair, free and open
society in our United Kingdom. Follow this plan and by 2020, our
economy will be strong, sustainable and fair, our public finances will
be healthy again and there will be jobs that last in every part of the
country. Follow this plan and there will be opportunity for everyone
to get on and live the life they want —at work, at home, online and in
our communities.

We have to finish the job of sorting out the UK’s public finances
— but we must do it fairly, making sure the wealthiest pay their fair
share. Only the Liberal Democrat plan will keep the UK on track,
balancing the books in 2017/18 so we can get back to investing in
the public services and infrastructure that help make our country
strong. In 2020, debt will be falling as a share of our economy for
the fourth year in a row, steadily rebuilding our national resilience
against future economic shocks.

Our economy will be thriving, delivering balanced growth with
jobs that last in every nation and region. Government will take a
long-term approach to supporting business and industry, helping
supply credit, skilled workers and infrastructure. Over a third of

UK electricity will come from renewables, not least from Scottish
generators, and we will be leading the world in the technologies of
the future, from electric cars to tidal power.

Britain will be the place to be if you want to thrive in advanced
manufacturing, science, creative, digital and green industries, and
our country will be open to ambitious entrepreneurs and thinkers
from overseas. We will finally be building enough homes, every year,
to meet our needs.

By 2020, our plan will bring together a lifetime of opportunities
for every generation, enhancing the quality of all our lives. Mothers
and fathers will be able to share the joys and struggles of early
parenthood with extended Shared Parental Leave. Free, high-
quality childcare will be available the moment parental leave is over.
Education will prosper under the Liberal Democrats.

Young people will leave school and college confident about
their future: we will have doubled the number of businesses hiring
apprentices.

Society will be more equal. A million more women will be enabled
to work, with fairer rules to help everyone juggle family life, caring
responsibilities and the world of work. Carers will be treated with
respect and given more help, including a bonus of £250 to spend
however they choose. The tax system will be fairer: people will
not pay Income Tax on the first £12,500 they earn, but strict rules
will be in place to make sure the richest pay their fair share and
corporations cannot dodge their tax responsibilities. Targeted green
taxes will discourage pollution and reward sustainability.

There will be more jobs in our economy, with steadily higher
wages and better employment rights. With Universal Credit and
reforms to disability benefits, it will always pay to work, and
everyone who needs a helping hand will get one. As you work, and
as you save, you will feel confident about life after retirement, too.
Millions more will have a workplace pension. Our ‘triple lock’ will
protect the State Pension, our new single tier pension will mean your
savings are your own to keep.

Our NHS will have the money it needs, and the Scottish
Parliament will have the resources to make sure mental health
will have equal status with physical health. Those facing anxiety
and depression will be seen swiftly, people struggling not to harm
themselves will find emergency help at A&E and teenagers suffering

from eating disorders will get the help they need close to home.

Five green laws will be on the statute books, protecting nature and
wildlife in Britain and across the world, cleaning up our air and helping
fight climate change.

People will be more free. A second Freedoms Act will have
embedded citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and protest. The
Human Rights Act will remain, with children’s rights protected in law
too. The culture of everyday sexism will be declining, with young
people taught in school about respect in relationships and sexual
consent. Online, people will no longer be worried that the government
is monitoring their every keystroke: a Digital Bill of Rights will have
enshrined enduring principles of privacy and helped keep the internet
open.

Our politics will be open, and fairer too. 2020 will be the first
General Election in which 16 year olds can vote — the first generation
to cast their first ballot in a fair STV voting system and the first
generation to vote for the House of Lords. But every 16 year old will
know it’s not just UK elections that matter: Scotland will have home
rule powers as proposed by the cross-party Smith Commission,
and comprehensive devolution to Wales and Northern Ireland will be
completed too, keeping the course to a federal UK.

In 2020 Britain will be a force for good in the world, leading global
action against climate change, tax avoidance and international
crime, working to prevent conflict and offer humanitarian aid, and
promoting trade, development and prosperity. We will still be meeting
our commitments to spend 0.7% of our national income helping
the world’s poorest people. And we will be standing tall in our own
neighbourhood, a leader in the European Union again. We will have
secured real reform of the EU to deliver more jobs, more growth, and
more security. Our borders will be secure and our immigration system
fair. We will be working across borders to tackle crime and keep
Britain safe.

Our Liberal Democrat plan will build a stronger economy and
a fairer society, in a truly United Kingdom. Our plan will deliver
opportunity for everyone.

Responsible
finances

Balancing the
budget in a
fair way

A responsible approach to tackling the deficit
and our country’s debts is essential because it
underpins everything else we want to achieve.

In the last five years, we have worked hard to
bring balance back to Britain’s public finances.
The deficit is now half what it was when we took
office in 2010. Nevertheless, there is still work to
be done. Only Liberal Democrats will complete
the job on time in a way that is fair, enables
sustainable growth and protects public services.

Responsible finances underpin every good government. High debt
and deficits are a risk to economic stability and it is simply not right
to borrow too much money and expect our children to pay it back.
Debt interest payments last year were £46 billion: more than we
spent on schools.

A responsible approach to tackling the deficit and our country’s
debts is essential because it underpins everything else we want to
achieve. In the last five years, we have worked hard to bring balance
back to Britain’s public finances. The deficit is now half what it was
when we took office in 2010. Nevertheless, there is still work to be
done. Only Liberal Democrats will complete the job on time in a way
that is fair, enables sustainable growth and protects public services.

We will complete the job of balancing the budget - on time, in

full, and fairly. The Liberal Democrat objective is to eradicate the
structural current budget deficit by 2017/18 and have debt falling as
a percentage of national income, so it is back to sustainable levels
by the middle of the next decade.

In 2010, Liberal Democrats insisted the coalition adopt a fairer
approach to dealing with the deficit, using both spending cuts and
tax rises, than the Conservatives had planned. This mixed approach
was much more in line with proposals set out in the Liberal
Democrat manifesto. The Conservatives now want to scrap this
approach entirely and use only spending cuts to finish the job. We
reject this proposal, which would do significant damage to Britain’s
public services and require punitive cuts to benefits on which some
of the most vulnerable people depend.

We are determined to stick with the approach we set out in 2010
— a fair way of restoring the nation’s finances. So as we finish the
job of balancing the books, we will use taxes on the wealthiest, on
banks and big business and on polluters, and we will bear down
on tax avoidance, to limit the impact of deficit reduction on public
services. We do not think low and middle income earners should
bear the burden of tax rises: our plans do not require any increase
in the headline rates of Income Tax, National Insurance, VAT or
Corporation Tax. In fact, our plans enable us to continue to cut
taxes for people on low and middle incomes by raising the tax-free
Personal Allowance.

Having a balanced approach on tax and spending enables us to:

¢ Protect the least well off in society and users of public services
from the impact of measures taken to tackle the deficit.

¢ Invest, over the Parliament, extra money for the NHS, essential to
protect our health service.

¢ Extend the current UK budget protection for education to include
early years and 16-19 provision. This will result in a stable funding
platform for the Scottish Parliament to invest in children and
young people.

¢ Limit reductions in departmental spending to less than half the
rate agreed for 2015/16.

¢ Limit welfare reductions so we do not destroy the essential safety
net that protects us all in times of crisis.

¢ Continue to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on
international development aid, helping the poorest in the world.

We will carry out a full Spending Review after the General Election.
Building on the successes of this Parliament, we will focus on
delivering efficiency, funding proven spend-to-save initiatives and
investing in technology to get public services and frontline staff
online. The aim of everything that government does will be to help
people improve their quality of life and wellbeing, especially the most
vulnerable and least well off.

BORROW

Once we have balanced the books, we will ensure that overall public
spending grows again in line with the economy. This will ensure we
can improve key public services and enable public sector workers to
receive fair and affordable increases in their pay. We understand that
public services depend upon high-quality and dedicated staff.

We will follow two new fiscal rules.

Our first fiscal rule is that, from 2017/18, debt must fall as a
proportion of our national income every year — except during a
recession — so it reaches sustainable levels around the middle of the
next decade.

Our second fiscal rule is that over the economic cycle we will =
balance the overall budget, no longer borrowing to pay for everyday
expenditure. We will make one significant exception to enable us to
invest in the things that will help our economy grow. Provided the
debt rule is met, the government will be able to borrow for capital
spending that enhances economic growth or financial stability,
enabling us to increase this productive investment.

In our Spending Review we will set out long-term plans for capital
expenditure, and ensure that investment in infrastructure, including
in housing and energy efficiency, continues to rise both in absolute
terms and as a share of the economy.

« Aim to balance the structural current budget by 2017/18.

¢ Set a course to reduce debt as a share of national income.

« Make deficit reduction fair by ensuring the richest pay
their fair share and corporations cannot avoid their tax
responsibilities.

¢ Set new fiscal rules to balance the budget while allowing
borrowing for productive investment.

¢ Increase public spending again in line with the economy

| once the budget is balanced.

Prosperity
for all

Building a
Sustainable
economy

Britain needs a strong economy not just to help
fund public services but because growth and
enterprise create jobs and opportunities for all.
Liberal Democrats want an economy that is
strong, green, open and fair. As Britain recovers,
we must make sure we don’t return to growth
based on personal debt and speculation, but
build prosperity and wellbeing that last, for
everyone.

<> Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

Britain needs a strong economy not just to help fund public services
but because growth and enterprise create jobs and opportunities for
all. Liberal Democrats want an economy that is strong, green, open
and fair. As Britain recovers, we must make sure we don’t return to
growth based on personal debt and speculation, but build prosperity
and wellbeing that last, for everyone.

We will grow a high-skill, low-carbon economy by supporting
education, training, infrastructure, innovation and technology. With
a stable, competitive business environment and investment in green
industries and infrastructure, we will ensure growth is embedded in
every part of the UK.

We have made a big start in government: reforming the banking
system; creating the world’s first Green Investment Bank; enabling
unprecedented investment in low-carbon energy; introducing a
Regional Growth Fund and a bold new Industrial Strategy to support
growth and high-skilled jobs; delivering more than two million new
apprenticeships; ensuring transparency of company ownership and
promoting more diversity in business leadership.

Now is the time to push forward and reject any temptation to go
back to the old economy. Whether it’s fighting for proper investment
in renewable energy, or working to build a high-skill, flexible labour
market: Liberal Democrats will ensure Britain doesn’t return to the
mistakes of the past.

A Record of Delivery

Billions invested in growing modern
British businesses with our Industrial
Strategy, Business Bank and
Regional Growth Fund

Reformed the banking system to
separate retail and investment
banking and help rebuild our
economy

The world’s first Green Investment
Bank and low-carbon energy market,
helping almost treble renewable
electricity generation

Biggest rail investment since
Victorian times, driving record
numbers of train journeys

A Promise of More

To deliver a balanced economy with strengths in every part of the
UK, Britain needs a highly skilled workforce and flexible business
support and finance. We must continue to invest to grow sectors like
advanced manufacturing that can provide high-skilled, sustainable
jobs, open up the supply chain to more small and medium-sized
businesses and support firms bringing activity back to Britain.

We will:

¢ Continue to develop our Industrial Strategy, working with sectors
which are critical to Britain’s ability to trade internationally — motor
vehicles, aerospace, low-carbon energy, chemicals, creative
industries, offshore and subsea technology and more.

¢ Develop the skilled workforce needed to support this growth with
a major expansion of high-quality and advanced apprenticeships,

&

offering vocational education on a par with academic
qualifications, backed up with new sector-led National Colleges.
We will develop a national skills strategy for key sectors, including
low-carbon technologies, to help match skills and people.

« Aim to double innovation and research spending across the
economy, supported by greater public funding on a longer
timescale, more ‘Catapult’ innovation and technology centres and
support for green innovation from the Green Investment Bank. We
will continue to ringfence the science budget and ensure that, by
2020, both capital and revenue spending have increased at least
in line with inflation.

« Build on the success of the Regional Growth Fund, which has
already created more than 100,000 jobs and secured £1.8 billion
of private investment. We will continue the Fund throughout the
next Parliament.

¢« Devolve more economic decision-making to local areas, building
on the success of City Deals and Growth Deals, prioritising the
transfer of transport, housing and infrastructure funding, skills
training and back-to-work support.

¢ Provide further support to medium-sized businesses through a
one-stop-shop for accessing government support, a dedicated
unit in HMRC and the development of management skills.

« Aim to stimulate local economies, working with Local Enterprise
Partnerships to improve their effectiveness and coordination. We
will:

“* Use central government public procurement policy as
a tool of local growth and community development, for
example by purchasing from diverse sources and using
local labour, goods and services, and encourage local
government to do the same.

“* Continue our work to open up public procurement to small
and medium-sized companies and to the voluntary sector.

“+ Develop platforms on which government can provide
feedback on its suppliers to help quality providers to grow.

The financial crisis of 2008 caused real damage to our economy
including one of the largest budget deficits in the world and banks
unable to support the real economy. Liberal Democrats have
ensured radical reform of the banking industry to make banks safe
and no longer requiring a taxpayer safety net.

Building on this progress, we will:

¢ Complete implementation of the new rules to separate retail
banking from investment banking, working with the financial
services industry to promote integrity, accountability and value
across the sector.

¢ Expand the British Business Bank to perform a more central
role in the economy, tackling the shortage of equity capital for
growing firms and providing long-term capital for medium-sized
businesses.

¢ Develop the UK banking sector to promote competition and
innovation by:

“ Facilitating new entrants, including through public
procurement policy.

“+ Encouraging the growth of crowdfunding and alternative
finance models, encouraging Local Authorities to use these
platforms to improve credit access in their areas.

¢* Promoting a new community banking sector to support
small and medium-sized enterprises and social enterprises.

“» Taking forward the recently commissioned study by the
British Business Bank into the sustainability of Community
Development Finance Institutions.

¢ Ensure access to finance for all, tackling discrimination in the
provision of financial services and supporting products that
increase financial inclusion.

¢ Continue the Banking Levy and introduce a time-limited
supplementary Corporation Tax charge on the banking sector
to ensure it continues to make a fair contribution to fiscal
consolidation.

2.3 Creating a stable and competitive environment
for growth

Britain needs a stable and competitive environment for growth; this
is essential to attract and sustain new businesses and new jobs.
Britain is not just a part of the European economy - we have to
compete with the developing economies of Asia and Latin America,
which are increasingly powering ahead.

We need to lock in macroeconomic stability, including low
inflation, and reduce the risks of a return to the economics of
boom and bust. And we need a tax system that is simple, fair and
competitive — which attracts and retains jobs in our country, while
ensuring business makes a fair contribution.

We will:

¢ Continue to support an independent Bank of England, with a
mandate to keep inflation low and stable to support sustainable
growth. We will protect the new regulatory framework, which
ensures the Bank of England has the necessary tools to help
avoid a return to boom and bust.

¢ Continue to reform business tax to ensure it stays competitive,
making small and medium-sized enterprises the priority for any
business tax cuts. We will work to adjust the tax system away
from subsidy of high leverage debt and tackle the bias against
equity investment.

¢« Reform and improve the Regulatory Policy Committee to reduce
regulatory uncertainty and remove unnecessary business
regulation. We understand that well-designed regulation, focused
on outcomes rather than processes, has a vital role in creating
markets and driving investment and will use it, in particular, to
promote low-carbon and resource-efficient innovation.

In England we will complete the ongoing review of Business Rates,
prioritising reforms that lessen the burden on smaller businesses,
ensure high streets remain competitive and promote more efficient
use of land. Liberal Democrats remain committed to introducing
Land Value Tax (LVT), which would replace Business Rates in

the longer term and could enable the reduction or abolition of
other taxes. We will extend the Business Rates review to ensure

it considers the implementation of LVT, as well as interim reforms
like Site Value Rating that could be completed within five years.
We will charge the Land Registry with completing registration of
all substantial land and property holdings in England and Wales by
2020.

New world markets are developing in low-carbon and resource-
efficient technologies. Britain’s real strengths in sectors like offshore
wind power and low-carbon vehicles, and in green finance, make us
well placed to compete.

We must make sure green industries can reach their full potential
and build on successes in increasing recycling to shift towards a
so-called ‘circular economy’ in which we use natural resources
efficiently and minimise waste. (See also Section 6.2)

We will:

¢« Pass a Zero Carbon Britain Act to set a new legally binding target

to bring net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

¢ Realise the full potential of the Green Investment Bank by
increasing its capitalisation, expanding its remit, allowing it to
raise funds independently and enabling it to issue green bonds.

¢ Place the Natural Capital Committee (NCC) on the same statutory
footing as the Committee on Climate Change through our
Nature Act. We will task the NCC with identifying the key natural
resources being used unsustainably and recommending legally
binding targets for reducing their net consumption; and introduce
incentives for businesses to improve resource efficiency.

¢ Help incentivise sustainable behaviour by increasing the
proportion of tax revenue accounted for by green taxes.

¢ Grow the market for green products and services with steadily
higher green criteria in public procurement policy, extending
procurement requirements more widely through the public sector
including to the NHS and Academy schools. In particular we will
deliver ambitious reductions in energy use.

¢ Increase research and development and commercialisation
support in four key low-carbon technologies where Britain could
lead the world: tidal power, carbon capture and storage, energy
storage and ultra-low emission vehicles.

¢ Ensure UK Trade and Investment and UK Export Finance can
prioritise support for key sectors identified in our Industrial
Strategy, including exports of green products and technologies,
and press for higher environmental standards for export credit
agencies throughout the OECD.

¢ Encourage the creation of green financial products to bring
consumer capital into green industries.

We will improve the way government handles the cross-cutting
challenges of delivering green growth and fighting climate change,
establishing a senior Cabinet Committee to coordinate action and
bringing together officials in inter-departmental units on issues

like air quality and resource management. We will replicate the
success of the Office for Budget Responsibility with an Office for
Environmental Responsibility scrutinising the government's efforts to
meet its environmental targets.

Liberal Democrats are leading the renewal of Britain’s ageing
infrastructure but we still have decades of under-investment to catch
up on. We need better transport infrastructure, a modern railway
system, and less congestion on our roads.

We have established our second fiscal rule precisely so we can
invest in productive infrastructure to help the economy grow.

<> Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

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We will:

¢ Set out 10-year rolling capital investment plans.
¢« Develop a comprehensive plan to electrify the overwhelming
majority of the UK rail network, reopen smaller stations, restore
twin-track lines to major routes and proceed with HS2, as the first
stage of a high-speed rail network to Scotland.
¢ Invest in major transport improvements and infrastructure. We will:
“+ Deliver the Transport for the North strategy to promote
growth, innovation and prosperity across northern England.
“¢ Develop more modern, resilient links to and within the
South West peninsula to help develop and diversify the
regional economy
“* Complete East-West rail, connecting up Oxford
and Cambridge and catalysing major new housing
development.
“* Ensure London’s transport infrastructure is improved
to withstand the pressure of population and economic
growth.
¢ Work to encourage further private sector investment in rail freight
terminals and rail-connected distribution parks. We will set a
clear objective to shift more freight from road to rail and change
planning law to ensure new developments provide good freight
access to retail, manufacturing and warehouse facilities.

¢ Ensure our airport infrastructure meets the needs of a modern
and open economy, without allowing emissions from aviation
to undermine our goal of a zero-carbon Britain by 2050. We will
carefully consider the conclusions of the Davies Review into
runway capacity and develop a strategic airports policy for the
whole of the UK in the light of those recommendations and advice
from the Committee on Climate Change. We remain opposed to
any expansion of Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick and any new
airport in the Thames Estuary, because of local issues of air and
noise pollution. We will ensure no net increase in runways across
the UK.

¢ Ensure new rail franchises include a stronger focus on customers,
including requirements to integrate more effectively with other
modes of transport and a programme of investment in new
stations, lines and station facilities. We will continue the Access
for All programme, improving disabled access to public transport.

Modern light rail systems, like Croydon Tramlink and Manchester
Metrolink, have brought significant benefits to passengers. We

will encourage Local Authorities to consider trams alongside other
options, and support a new generation of light rail and ultra-light rail
schemes in towns and cities where local people want them.

Our reforms of the electricity market have already created the
world’s first low-carbon electricity market and will stimulate up to
250,000 green jobs across the UK by 2020. Since 2010, energy
demand has fallen by 2.5% a year and renewable electricity
generation has almost trebled.

But we need to go further and faster to meet our goal of reducing
energy demand by 50% by 2030. If we do not speed up energy
efficiency investment, our buildings will continue to leak energy and
waste money and our businesses will fail to compete internationally.
We will ensure we create a low-carbon economy at the lowest cost
for consumers.

We will:

¢ Make saving energy a top infrastructure priority, stimulating
private sector demand with our new Electricity Demand
Reduction market, new market-shaping energy efficiency
standards, support for industry, particularly SMEs, and a
programme of tax incentives and public investment. Our plans for
insulating homes are set out in more detail in Section 7.5, below.
¢ Stimulate a minimum of £100 billion more private investment in

®

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

®

low-carbon energy infrastructure by 2020.

Set a legally binding decarbonisation target range for 2030 for the
power sector of 50-100g of CO, per kWh, which can largely be
achieved by expansion of renewables, with an indicative target

of 60% of electricity from renewable sources by 2030. We will
support investment in energy storage and smart grid technology
to enable this higher reliance on renewables.

Work with the independent regulator Ofgem to ensure the costs
of electricity distribution and transmission infrastructure are
allocated efficiently and fairly between consumers and generators
across the country, and develop more European electricity
interconnection capacity.

Regulate to end the use of unabated coal in electricity generation
by 2025 because of its high carbon emissions and impact on local
air quality, and require any new gas stations built after 2030 to be
fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology. We will
implement a second phase of CCS projects by 2020.

Expand community energy, building on Britain’s first ever
community energy strategy with additional financial and
regulatory support. We will encourage Councils to be proactive in
delivering energy saving and electricity generation.

Encourage onshore wind in appropriate locations, helping

meet our climate targets at least cost. We will end ideologically
motivated interference in local planning decisions for wind farms
by Government Ministers.

Accept that new nuclear power stations can play a role in low-

carbon electricity supply provided concerns about safety,
disposal of waste and cost are adequately addressed and without
public subsidy for new build.

¢ Use biomass primarily for heating and small-scale power
generation, act to encourage the wider use of biogas and argue
for the reform of EU policies on biofuels and biomass which help
drive deforestation, including ending all support for food-crop-
based biofuels after 2020.

¢ Continue to back new entrants to the energy market, smart
meters and faster switching to promote proper competition,
aiming for at least 30% of the household market to be supplied by
competitors to the ‘Big 6’ by 2020.

The UK has significant stores of unconventional gas, which could
be accessed through the process known as fracking. It is vital

that efforts to access this gas be properly regulated to protect

our natural environment. Liberal Democrats in government

have introduced the world’s most robust regulatory regime for
unconventional gas, including banning drilling in National Parks, and
will take two further steps to ensure any shale gas contributes to a
faster transition to a low-carbon economy.

We will:

¢ Establish a Low-carbon Transition Fund using 50% of any tax
revenues from shale gas to fund energy efficiency, community
energy, low-carbon innovation and renewable heat.

¢ Require that once a shale gas well is finished, it must be offered
at no cost to geothermal heat developers, to enable faster
expansion of this renewable technology.

As a major global economy, we must promote open markets and
free trade, both within the European Union and beyond. Only as
a full member of a reformed European Union can we be certain
Britain’s businesses will have access to markets in Europe and
beyond.

Liberal Democrats believe we should welcome talented people
from abroad, encourage visitors and tourists who contribute
enormously to our economic growth, and give sanctuary to refugees
fleeing persecution. Immigration procedures must be robust and fair,
and the UK must remain open to visitors who boost our economy,
and migrant workers who play a vital role in business and public
services.

&

Number of people
in employment

We will:

¢ Remain a committed member of the EU so we can complete the
Single Market in areas including online industries, the energy
market and services, and help negotiate EU international trade
agreements, opening opportunities for British businesses.

¢ Support Single Market disciplines in relation to competition and
state aid rules while creating a stronger public interest test for
takeovers in research-intensive activities.

¢ Continue to allow high-skill immigration to support key sectors of
the economy, and ensure work, tourist and family visit visas are
processed quickly and efficiently.

¢ Ensure the UK is an attractive destination for overseas students,
not least those who wish to study STEM subjects (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Maths). We will reinstate post-study
work visas for STEM graduates who can find graduate-level
employment within six months of completing their degree.

Tourism and heritage collectively make up as much as 9% of our
economy, and yet these industries do not have the status they
deserve in government or in wider society. We will work to make
sure the British tourism industry is able to compete with other major
world destinations and be a key generator of growth in the UK
economy.

We will:

¢ Strengthen the Hospitality and Tourism Council, with the Business
and Culture Secretaries as co-chairs.

¢ Give higher status to tourism within the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport.

¢ Build on our successful Tourism North and Tourism South West
initiatives to devolve more power, resources and decision-making
to local areas to promote their unique tourism propositions in the
UK and globally.

The UK has a competitive advantage in key sectors of the modern
economy that have the capacity to transform our lives. The UK’s
digital sector is growing at a rate of over 10% a year, employing
nearly 1.5m people. 15% of all new companies last year were
digital companies. We need to support this important sector of our
economy. We will:

&

Complete the rollout of high-speed broadband, to reach almost
every household (99.9%) in the UK as well as small businesses in
both rural and urban areas.

Build on the success of Tech City, Tech North and the Cambridge
tech cluster with a network across the UK acting as incubators for
technology companies.

Support fast-growing businesses that could create a million jobs
over 20 years, following the Sherry Coutu report into these
‘Scale- Ups’.

Promote the take up of STEM subjects in schools, retain coding
on the National Curriculum and encourage entrepreneurship at
all levels.

Maintain and develop the award-winning Government Digital
Service, and the principle of Digital by Default in public services,
pressing ahead with plans to extend this to local government.
Continue to release government data sets that can facilitate
economic growth in an open and accessible format, including on
standards in public services.

¢ Ensure the technology implications of government activity
are properly considered by introducing Technology Impact
Assessments into the policy design process.

¢ Develop cutting-edge digital skills courses for young people
and the unemployed, working with private sector employers and
education and training providers.

Liberal Democrats understand that arts, creative industries and
culture are crucial to Britain’s success and essential for personal
fulfilment and quality of life. The UK’s creative sector has been one
of the great success stories of the past five years, and a critical
driver of our recovery. We are proud of the arts in Britain and will
support them properly, working to deliver access for all, regardless
of income, ethnicity, gender, age, belief, sexuality or disability. We
believe the arts have an essential role in our education system and
will work to encourage creativity in our schools and universities.

We will:

¢ Maintain free access to national museums and galleries, while
giving these institutions greater autonomy.

¢ Protect the independence of the BBC while ensuring the Licence
Fee does not rise faster than inflation, maintain Channel 4 in public
ownership and protect the funding and editorial independence of
Welsh language broadcasters.

¢ Support growth in the creative industries, including video
gaming, by continuing to support the Creative Industries Council,
promoting creative skills, supporting modern and flexible patent,
copyright and licensing rules, and addressing the barriers to
finance faced by small creative businesses.

2

Real help for
family finances

Tax, welfare,
pensions and
consumer rights

A fair society is one in which everyone has the
means to get by and the chance to get on. We
will continue to rebalance the tax system away
from hard work and towards unearned wealth,
while stamping out abusive tax avoidance.

We will increase availability of childcare to help
parents who want to work. We will continue to
reform welfare and get people the right support
in Jobcentres. We will build on our world-leading
reforms to the pensions system. And we will fight
tirelessly for a better deal for consumers, in the
private and public sectors.

Liberal Democrats believe Britain should be more equal, and have
worked in government to cut taxes for people on low and middle
incomes, putting money back in the pockets of millions of people.
We have improved childcare support, reformed benefits to make
sure work pays and improved back-to-work support. And we have
freed up pension savings to give older people more choice about
how to manage their money in retirement.

We will continue to rebalance the tax system away from hard
work and towards unearned wealth, while stamping out abusive tax
avoidance. We will increase availability of childcare to help parents
who want to work. We will continue to reform welfare and get people
the right support in Jobcentres. We will build on our world-leading
reforms to the pensions system. And we will fight tirelessly for a
better deal for consumers, in the private and public sectors.

PM at=Xere) ce Mey PX-VIV- ag A Promise of More

An £800 tax cut for low and middle
income earners, delivered by letting
you earn £10,600 tax free

Secured the biggest ever cash rise in
the state pension with our ‘triple lock’
policy on uprating

Cut the cost of childcare with more
free hours for three and four-year
olds, and help for disadvantaged
two- year olds too.

Helped people balance work and
family life with Shared Parental Leave
and the Right to Request flexible
working for all

Kept welfare spending under control,
while blocking plans to cut off young
people’s benefits

During this Parliament we have gone even further than our manifesto
pledge to raise the personal Income Tax threshold to £10,000 a year.
This April’s increase to £10,600 has lifted more than three million
people out of Income Tax altogether and delivered a tax cut of more
than £800 for millions of low and middle-income taxpayers.

We will continue to make taxes fairer and simpler, help those on
low and middle incomes, and ensure those on the highest incomes
make a fair contribution.

i¢%)

Real help for family finances | tax, welfare, pensions and consumer rights

©

We will:

« Raise the tax-free Personal Allowance to at least £12,500 by
the end of the next Parliament, putting around £400 back in the
pockets of millions of working people and pensioners. We will
bring forward the planned increase to an £11,000 allowance to
April 2016.

¢« Consider, as a next step, and once the Personal Allowance rise
is delivered, raising the employee National Insurance threshold
to the Income Tax threshold, as resources allow, while protecting
low earners’ ability to accrue pension and benefit entitlements.

¢ Ensure those with the highest incomes and wealth are making
a fair contribution. We have identified a series of distortions,
loopholes and excess reliefs that should be removed, raising
money to contribute to deficit reduction. These include reforms
to Capital Gains Tax and Dividend Tax relief, refocusing
Entrepreneurs’ Relief and a supplementary Corporation Tax for
the banking sector. In addition, we will introduce a UK-wide High
Value Property Levy on residential properties worth over
£2 million. It will have a banded structure, like Council Tax.

« Take tough action against corporate tax evasion and avoidance,
including by:

“* Setting a target for HM Revenue and Customs to reduce
the tax gap and continuing to invest in staff to enable them
to meet it.

“¢ Introducing a general anti-avoidance rule which would
outlaw contrived structures designed purely or largely to
avoid tax.

“* Implementing the planned new offence of corporate
failure to prevent economic crime, including tax evasion,
with penalties for directors up to and including custodial
sentences.

“* Levying penalties on firms proven to facilitate tax evasion,
equivalent to the amount of tax evaded by their clients.

“ Asking the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee
to consider the approach to paying tax taken by banks for
themselves, their employees and for their customers, as
part of their assessment of the risks posed by the sector,
supported by an annual report by HMRC.

¢ Restrict access to non-domiciled status, increasing the charges
paid to adopt this status and ending the ability to inherit it.

Many parents want to take significant time out from work to care for
young children but in many families both parents want or have to

work, and the costs of childcare are prohibitive.

We have made dramatic improvements over the current
Parliament - with Tax-Free Childcare, increases in childcare support
through the benefit system and more free childcare hours for two,
three and four-year olds. But we need to do more so that all who
want to work can do so.

We will:

¢ Commit to an ambitious goal of 20 hours’ free childcare a week
for all parents with children aged from two to four-years, and all
working parents from the end of paid parental leave (nine months)
to two years. This will not only help parents afford to work, it will
help all children start school confident, happy and ready to learn.

¢ Start by providing 15 hours a week of free childcare to the parents
of all two-year olds. We will then prioritise 15 hours free childcare
for all working parents with children aged between nine months
and two years.

¢ Complete the introduction of Tax-Free Childcare, which will
provide up to £2,000 of childcare support for each child and
include childcare support in Universal Credit, refunding 85% of
childcare costs so work pays for low earners.

More people are working in the UK today than ever before. Our
economic plans have created more jobs than anyone forecast.
But that does not make it easy for everyone to find work. Liberal
Democrats inherited a benefit system that trapped millions on out-
of-work benefits, because it simply did not pay to be in work. Our
reforms are starting to change that but we need to go further.

We will:

¢ Complete the introduction of Universal Credit (UC), so people are
always better off in work. We will review UC to address any issues
regarding ‘cliff edges’, and ensure increased working hours are
properly incentivised for all claimants. We will retain the overall
cap on a household’s benefits and believe this should continue to
be set at around the average family income.

¢ Deliver a reformed and improved Work Programme in partnership
with English local government, and the national governments
of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. By devolving this
support we can ensure help and training are more tailored to
local employment markets and better integrated with other
services. We will improve incentives for Jobcentre staff and

&

Work Programme providers to ensure there is real help for those
furthest from the labour market.

¢ Establish a review of effective ways to promote ‘rainy day’ saving
to improve people’s financial resilience, and reform hardship
payments, making it easier for people to bring forward part of
their benefit payments to deal with emergencies.

« Develop a package of specialist support for carers seeking part-
time work or a return to full-time employment.

« Review sanctions procedures in Jobcentres. While sanctions
can be a necessary last resort to ensure jobseekers are looking
for work, they should not be used to cut benefit expenditure
deliberately. Reductions in benefits may not always be the best
way to improve claimants’ compliance: those with chaotic lives
might be more successful in finding a job if they were directed to
targeted support with their problems. We will ensure there are no
league tables or targets for sanctions issued by Jobcentres and
introduce a ‘yellow card’ warning so people are only sanctioned if
they deliberately and repeatedly break the rules.

Liberal Democrats will protect young people’s entitlements to the
welfare safety net, while getting them the help they need to get their
first job. That means doubling the number of businesses that hire
apprentices. It also means providing support that has been proven
to work, like work experience placements that help them get a first
foot on the career ladder. These placements should be tailored for
those with disabilities or mental health problems and those with
parental responsibilities and we will work to expand the availability of
placements into new sectors including manufacturing, science and
technology.

Working-age benefits make up a significant proportion of public
spending, and have long been in need of reform, which we have
started in this Parliament. Through tough choices, we have found
savings in the welfare budget and we must continue to do so as
we balance the books. However, we do not support proposals for
a lengthy freeze to working age benefits, and we will not protect
benefits for the wealthiest pensioners at the expense of people
working on low wages.

Our priority is to tackle the causes of rising benefit bills — high
rents, low pay, sickness and unemployment.

We will:

¢ Introduce a 1% cap on the uprating of working-age benefits until

the budget is balanced in 2017/18, after which they will rise with
inflation once again. Disability and parental leave benefits will be
exempt from this temporary cap.

¢ Encourage landlords to lower their rent by paying them Housing
Benefit directly, with tenants’ consent, in return for a fixed
reduction. Our plans for a major expansion of house building and
new ‘family friendly’ tenancies, which limit annual rent increases,
will also help reduce upward pressure on rents. We will review the
way the Shared Accommodation Rate in Local Housing Allowance
is set, and review the Broad Rental Market Areas to ensure they fit
with realistic travel patterns.

¢ Improve links between Jobcentres and Work Programme
providers and the local NHS to ensure all those in receipt of
health-related benefits are getting the care and support to which
they are entitled. In particular, as we expand access to talking
therapies we expect many more people to recover and be able to
seek work again.

¢ Work with Local Authorities to tackle fraud and error in a more

Real help for family finances | tax, welfare, pensions and consumer rights

4

Income Tax
Personal
Allowance

£12,000
£11,000

£10,000

£7,000
. “y A
£5,000

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coordinated way, in particular on Housing Benefit.
¢ Help everyone in work on a low wage step up the career
ladder and increase their hours, reducing their need for
benefits, with tailored in-work careers and job search advice.
¢ Withdraw eligibility for the Winter Fuel Payment and free
TV Licence from pensioners who pay tax at the higher rate
(40%). We will retain the free bus pass for all pensioners.

Britain’s employment laws are among the best in the world,
balancing the needs of business for flexibility with the rights
of staff to fair treatment. Nonetheless there are still too many
examples of low pay, exploitation, and bad practice, which
contribute to unacceptable levels of inequality in our society.
This has to change: the more people earn a decent wage, the
fewer will be dependent on benefits or stuck in poverty.

We will:

¢ Encourage employers to provide more flexible working,
expanding Shared Parental Leave with an additional ‘use it
or lose it? month to encourage fathers to take time off with
young children. While changes to parental leave should
be introduced slowly to give business time to adjust, our
ambition is to see Paternity and Shared Parental Leave
become a ‘day one’ right.

¢ Ensure swift implementation of the new rules requiring
companies with more than 250 employees to publish
details of the different pay levels of men and women in their
organisation. We will build on this platform and, by 2020,
extend transparency requirements to include publishing the
number of people paid less than the Living Wage and the
ratio between top and median pay. We will also consult on
requirements for companies to conduct and publish a full
equality pay review, and to consult staff on executive pay.

« Ask the Low Pay Commission to look at ways of raising the
National Minimum Wage, without damaging employment
opportunities. We will improve enforcement action and clamp
down on abuses by employers seeking to avoid paying
the minimum wage by reviewing practices such as unpaid
internships.

¢ Establish an independent review to consult on how to set a
fair Living Wage across all sectors. We will pay this Living
Wage in all central government departments and their
agencies from April 2016, and encourage other public sector

o

employers to do likewise.

¢ Improve the enforcement of employment rights, reviewing
Employment Tribunal fees to ensure they are not a barrier. We will
ensure employers cannot avoid giving their staff rights or paying
the minimum wage by wrongly classifying them as workers or
self-employed.

Liberal Democrats understand that flexible employment contracts —
including Zero Hours contracts — can work well for employees and
businesses. But that is not always the case and we will continue

to stamp out abuse. We will create a formal right to request a fixed
contract and consult on introducing a right to make regular patterns
of work contractual after a period of time.

For too long, sickness benefits were used as a way of parking
people away from the unemployment statistics. Our aim is to
get everyone the support and help they need, both financially
and in terms of advice and support. That does require a formal
assessment: but these tests have to be fair and should not be an
extra burden for vulnerable people. That is why we have made
many improvements to the assessments introduced by the last
government.

We want to aim even higher, ensuring assessments are truly fair,
with quick access to financial help for those who cannot work, and
support for those who can.

We will:

¢ Conduct a review of the Work Capability Assessment and
Personal Independence Payment assessments to ensure they are
fair, accurate and timely and evaluate the merits of a public sector
provider.

¢ Invest to clear any backlog in assessments for Disability Living
Allowance and Personal Independence Payment.

¢ Simplify and streamline back-to-work support for people with
disabilities, mental or physical health problems. We will aim for
the goal of one assessment and one budget for disabled and sick
people to give them more choice and control.

« Raise awareness of, and seek to expand, Access to Work, which
supports people with disabilities in work.

« Reform the policy to remove the spare room subsidy. Existing
social tenants will not be subject to any housing benefit
reduction until they have been offered reasonable alternative
accommodation. We will ensure tenants who need an extra

bedroom for genuine medical reasons are entitled to one in any
assessment of their Housing Benefit needs, and those whose
homes are substantially adapted do not have their Housing
Benefit reduced.

Life expectancy is increasing. This is obviously good news, but it
brings challenges; older people may need a pension income that will
last for 20, 30 or even 40 years.

We want to build on the world-leading reforms Liberal Democrats
in government have introduced since 2010. We have abolished the
default retirement ages so older people cannot be forced out of
work on grounds of age. We have reversed decades of decline in
pensioner incomes by uprating the state pension in line with our
‘triple lock’ guarantee. We have introduced a new single tier pension
to make saving simple. We have auto-enrolled five million people
into a pension for the first time. And we have scrapped the rules that
dictated how you receive your pension, So now you can spend your
savings as you see fit.

We want Britain to be the best place in the world to save for, and
enjoy, your retirement.

We will:

¢ Continue the introduction of our simpler single tier pension so
people can plan ahead securely, and feel the benefit of every
pound they save.

¢ Legislate for the Liberal Democrat ‘triple lock’ of increasing the
State Pension each year by the highest of earnings growth, prices
growth or 2.5%.

¢ Ensure pensioners are eligible to gain from the increased
Personal Allowance of £12,500.

¢ Improve workplace pensions and continue to auto-enrol workers,
completing the rollout of this scheme in full and on time. We will
crack down on charges and encourage people to save more into
their pension pot through this scheme.

¢ Press ahead with plans to allow people more freedom in the use
of their pension pots and to allow existing pensioners to sell their
annuity.

¢ Establish a review to consider the case for, and practical
implications of, introducing a single rate of tax relief for pensions,
which would be designed to be simpler and fairer and which
would be set more generously than the current 20% basic rate
relief.

Confident consumers encourage innovation and competition,
which strengthen our economy. We have radically overhauled
consumer rights law, making it simpler and clearer and for the

first time protecting consumers buying digital content. We have
driven competition in the energy sector, speeded up switching, and
simplified tariffs so customers can always get the best deal. We
have ended the era of above-inflation rail fare increases. We have
clamped down on unscrupulous payday lenders and strengthened
protections for vulnerable consumers against rogue traders. In the
next Parliament we want to go further.

We will:

« Force energy companies to allow customers to change to any
cheaper supplier in just 24 hours, and extend the principle of
‘gainer led’ switching, where your new provider organises your
switch for you, into new sectors, including telecoms.

¢« Give people easier to understand information about their own
energy use, with appropriate privacy protections, with a national
rollout of smart electricity and gas meters. We will guarantee that
anyone on a prepayment meter can choose a smart meter instead
by 2017.

¢ Help people form new energy cooperatives so they can benefit
from group discounts and cut their bills.

¢ Protect high streets and consumers by granting new powers
to Local Authorities to reduce the proliferation of betting shops
and substantially reducing the maximum stakes for Fixed Odds
Betting Terminals.

¢ Ensure rail fares rise no faster than inflation over the Parliament as
a whole.

¢« Require the Sports Ground Safety Authority to prepare guidance
under which domestic football clubs, working with their
supporters, may introduce safe standing areas.

¢ Continue and expand the midata project into new sectors, giving
consumers the right to access data businesses hold on them in
an open and reusable format.

Citizens expect a good service from their public services, and
rightly so. While many schools, hospitals, libraries and other public
institutions offer world-class standards, we could do so much

better: integrating services and making them more accessible, as
well as improving the response when things go wrong.

Liberal Democrats value the important role the voluntary,
independent and community sectors play in the life of our
communities and in delivering public services. To ensure all
providers of public services are accountable to their users and the
public, a public authority (if possible a democratically accountable
one) should always take the decision about whether a service should
be provided or commissioned.

We will:

¢ Improve consumer protections in public services, with a review of
complaints handling processes, exploring the options of mirroring
the private sector ‘super-complaint’ system in the public sector
and reforms to the current system of ombudsmen.

¢ Introduce a ‘community trigger’ mechanism to enable the public
to require a review of the provision of a particular service being
delivered consistently poorly.

¢ Extend Freedom of Information laws to cover private companies
delivering public services.

¢ Work with Local Authorities to bring services together at a local
level to provide a better service to citizens, and support users in
pooling their personal budgets into mutual support arrangements.

¢ Continue and expand the What Works Network to promote
evidence-based policy making, establish an incubator for social
enterprises developing innovative solutions to policy problems
and expand the use of public competitions to encourage
innovation in public services.

¢ Require the highest standards of data protection by public service
providers, including requiring that where data is used for research
purposes it must be anonymised wherever possible, and impose
a moratorium on the creation of new government databases
without Parliamentary authority.

An opportunity
society

World-class
education for all

Liberal Democrats have put education at the
heart of our agenda for a generation. We believe
every child deserves a great start in life, and

are determined to make sure that the education
system finds and nurtures the best in everyone.
This is essential in order to break down the
unfair divisions in Our society, and to ensure a
productive, competitive economy.

Liberal Democrats have put education at the heart of our agenda for
a generation. We believe every child deserves a great start in life,
and are determined to make sure that the education system finds
and nurtures the best in everyone. This is essential in order to break
down the unfair divisions in our society, and to ensure a productive,
competitive economy.

Too many people have their chances in life determined by who
their parents are, rather than by their own efforts and abilities. With
our Pupil Premium, investing in children who might otherwise fall
behind, we are finally tackling the scandalous gap in exam results
between rich and poor, but we must do even more.

Children start learning from the moment they are born, so parents
need to be supported right from the start. Our plan stretches from
cradle to college: high-quality early years education; qualified
teachers and successful schools in every community; more money
helping the children who need it most; flexible choices for teenagers
and young people; and world-class training at college and university
to set every young adult on the path to a fulfilled working life.

PM at-Yere) qe ey PX-VIN-1 ag A Promise of More

Protection for school budgets and
new Pupil Premium cash for your
local school to help children who
might otherwise fall behind

A million more children now taught in
good or outstanding schools

Driven up standards and narrowed
the attainment gap between rich and
poor children

Free school meals for the youngest
children in primary school

Two million apprenticeships, training
our young people for 21st century
jobs, and record numbers going to
university

If we want a more equal society, we must get help to all those who
might fall behind, and their parents, right from the start. That means
improving early education and protecting the wide range of family
support services offered in Children’s Centres. We must improve
the quality of early years teaching, and raise the status of those who
work in early years.

We will:

« Raise the quality of early years provision and ensure that by 2020
every formal early years setting employs at least one person

aN

An opportunity society | world class education for all

Improving standards
in schools

° 5.7 Million

children in good or
outstanding schools

Millions

, 2010 2014

Under the Liberal Democrats the proportion of pupils in
good and outstanding schools increased from 66% to 79%
- that's a million more pupils getting a good education.

who holds an Early Years Teacher qualification. Working with
organisations like Teach First, we will recruit more staff with Early
Years Qualified status, and extend full Qualified Teacher status,
terms and conditions to all those who are properly trained.

¢ Increase our Early Years Pupil Premium — which gives early
years settings extra money to help children from disadvantaged
backgrounds — to £1,000 per pupil per year.

¢ Continue to support Local Authorities in providing Children’s
Centres, especially in areas of high need, encouraging integration
with other community services like health visitors, and in
particular reviewing the support and advice available for parents
on early child nutrition and breastfeeding.

¢ Improve the identification of Special Educational Needs and
disability at the earliest possible stage, so targeted support can
be provided and primary schools are better prepared for their
intake of pupils.

There is much to be proud of in our schools today, and much that has
been improved in the last few years. But far too many children are still
failing to get the qualifications they need. The gaps between rich and
poor are still too wide. We cannot fail our children — especially when we
know it is the children who need the most help who are the most likely
to be let down.

We will:

¢ Protect the education budget in real terms from the early years to
age 19. We will at least protect the schools’ Pupil Premium in real
terms, consider carefully the merits of extending the Premium, and
introduce a fair National Funding Formula.

¢ Set aclear ambition for all children to achieve a good grasp of Maths
and English, aiming to eradicate child illiteracy and innumeracy by
2025. We will set an interim goal that all children should start school
with good language skills by 2020.

¢ Strengthen school leadership and governance. We will provide rapid
support and intervention to help ensure that all schools become
good or outstanding. Our Talented Head Teachers programme will
expand, helping move top leaders to where they are most needed.

¢ Increase the number of Teaching Schools — centres of teaching
excellence that provide support to other schools.

¢ Ensure there is an effective, democratically accountable, ‘middle tier
to support and intervene in schools where problems are identified.
We will encourage local head teachers with a strong record to play
a key role in school improvement through a local Head Teacher

&

Board, working with schools and Local Authorities. We will abolish
unelected Regional Schools Commissioners.

¢ Allow Ofsted to inspect both Local Authorities and academy chains.
Local authorities and academy chains which are failed by Ofsted for
intervention work will be required to work with stronger organisations
or be replaced.

¢ Rule out state-funded profit-making schools.

¢ Give democratically accountable Local Authorities clear
responsibility for local school places planning. We will only fund
new mainstream schools in areas where school places are needed,
and repeal the rule that all new state funded schools must be free
schools or academies. We will allow Local Authorities to select the
school sponsor, where this is not the Local Authority itself.

¢ Ensure a fair local schools admissions process.

¢ Implement the Children’s Commissioner’s report They Go The Extra
Mile into the prevention of and positive alternatives to exclusion, and
strengthen appeals panels.

¢ Extend free school meals to all children in primary education as
resources allow and following a full evaluation of free meals for
infants.

¢ Continue to promote the local integration of health, care and
educational support for children with Special Educational Needs and
health problems.

We will allow parents to continue to choose faith-based schools
within the state-funded sector and allow the establishment of new
faith schools. We will ensure all faith schools develop an inclusive
admissions policy and end unfair discrimination on grounds of faith
when recruiting staff, except for those principally responsible for
optional religious instruction.

Great teachers are at the heart of a successful education system.
We will continue our work to attract the best into the profession and
support teachers throughout their careers.

We want to build the status of the teaching profession, support
and nurture teachers in their work, and so drive up standards in
every school.

We will:
¢ Guarantee all teachers in state-funded schools will be fully

qualified or working towards Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) from
September 2016.

¢ Introduce a clear and properly funded entitlement to professional
development for all teachers. We will raise the bar for entry to
the profession, requiring a B grade minimum in GCSE Maths and
English, allowing us to abolish the separate Maths and English
tests.
¢ Help establish a new profession-led Royal College of Teachers,
eventually to oversee Qualified Teacher Status and professional
development. We do not believe Ministers should dictate teaching
practice and will not issue instructions about how to structure the
school day or what kind of lessons to conduct.
¢ Continue to support the Teach First programme to attract high
calibre graduates into teaching, in particular in STEM subjects.
¢ Tackle unnecessary teacher workload, including by:
*¢ Avoiding policy changes while children are within a key
stage.
“ Establishing the right accountability framework for schools.
“» Ensuring Ofsted inspections are high-quality, fair to all
schools and focus on outcomes and not processes.
¢ Establish a new National Leadership Institute to promote high-
quality leadership and help the best leaders into the most
challenging schools.
¢ Continue to work with the Education Endowment Foundation
to establish a comprehensive evidence base on what works
in teaching, including assessing play-based learning in early
education, and tackling the attainment gap.

We need to encourage and inspire more children to study STEM
subjects. At primary level we will encourage schools to have at least
one science specialist among the staff, and at secondary level work
to maximise the number of teachers who have degree qualifications
in the subjects they teach.

We want schools to have flexibility and freedom, but we also
believe that both parents and children need to know that the school
curriculum will cover the essentials, and that teachers will be skilled
educators who know how to inspire a love of learning.

That is why we have developed our Parents’ Guarantee: every
child will be taught by qualified teachers, and the core curriculum
will be taught at every state-funded school. We want the highest
standards in our schools, and will ensure that every child has a
thorough grasp of the basics. But we also understand that a great
education is about more than just learning facts: creativity should
be nurtured, children should be helped to develop the life skills they

will need as adults, and every pupil should be given advice and
guidance about their future.

We will:

¢« Establish an independent Educational Standards Authority (ESA)
entirely removed from Ministerial interference. The ESA will have
responsibility for curriculum content and examination standards.

¢ Introduce a minimum curriculum entitlement — a slimmed down
core national curriculum, which will be taught in all state-funded
schools. This will include Personal, Social and Health Education:
a ‘curriculum for life’ including financial literacy, first aid and
emergency lifesaving skills, citizenship, and age-appropriate sex
and relationship education. To ensure all children learn about a
wide range of religious and nonreligious world views, religious
education will be included in the core curriculum; however we will
give schools the freedom to set policy on whether to hold acts
of collective worship, while ensuring any such acts are strictly
optional.

¢« Complete the introduction of reformed GCSEs, while continuing
to oppose Conservative plans for a return to the old O-level/CSE
divide.

¢ Improve the quality of vocational education, including skills for
entrepreneurship and self-employment, and improve careers
advice in schools and colleges.

Liberal Democrats have long championed early intervention to
prevent problems before they arise, but we also need to make sure
we equip social workers with the skills to address these complex
issues and ensure children’s safety. Where children do have to be
taken into care we must make sure they find a loving home with

as little disruption and instability as possible. We have done much
in Government to be proud of in helping children in care and to
improve social work, but we can still go further.

We will:

¢ Continue to invest in early intervention, further expanding the
Troubled Families Programme and building on the work of the
Early Intervention Foundation to spread evidence of what works.

¢« Expect Local Authorities to set out a clear purpose for the care
system: to promote emotional wellbeing and resilience, provide
a secure base on which children can be supported in their
development and provide individually tailored help with recovery.

¢ Raise the quality and profile of children’s social work, continuing
and expanding the Frontline programme - which is fast-tracking
the brightest and best into the profession — to at least 300
graduate recruits each year.

¢ Tackle delay and instability in foster care, with better support and
training for foster carers, including on mental health issues.

¢ Continue to make it easier for children in care to find a loving
home, through the national Adoption Register and the new
national gateway for adoption, a first point of contact for potential
adopters.

¢ Prevent looked after children and young people being drawn into
the criminal justice system unnecessarily by promoting restorative
justice.

We want young people to face the future with optimism and
confidence. The education leaving age has now risen to 18, but as
children grow, their independence grows too, and the support that
education and youth services provide to them and their families
needs to adapt. Whether it is supporting people with the costs of
travel to college or apprenticeships, or promoting positive images of
young people by celebrating their successes: Liberal Democrats are
on the side of the next generation.

We will:

¢ Work to introduce a new Young Person’s Discount Card, for
young people aged 16-21, giving a 2/3rds discount on bus
travel, as resources allow. This will assist all bus users by helping
maintain the viability of existing bus routes and making it easier to
open new ones.

¢ Enable government departments, local Councils and private
businesses to add discount offers to the Young Person’s Discount
Card.

¢ Review access to transport for students and apprentices in rural
areas where no scheduled services may be available.

¢ Develop an NHS ‘student guarantee’, making it easier for students
to get care and support while at university, particularly those with
long-term health conditions or caring responsibilities.

¢ Promote social action and volunteering at school, college and university
and work to raise the status of youth work and youth workers.

¢ Improve links between employers and schools, encouraging all
schools to participate in mentoring schemes and programmes
that seek to raise aspiration like Speakers for Schools and

&

Inspiring The Future. In particular, we will seek to inspire more
children and young people to follow technical and scientific
careers through partnership with relevant businesses.

Liberal Democrats have ensured that no undergraduate student in
England has to pay a penny up front of their tuition fees. Students
in England do not have to pay anything until they are earning over
£21,000 per year — a figure which will increase in line with earnings
— and over that income, monthly repayments are linked to earnings.
This means only high-earning graduates pay their tuition fees in full.
We now have the highest university application rates ever, including
from disadvantaged students.

But we need to ensure higher education is accessible to all those
who can benefit, including at postgraduate level. Liberal Democrats
in government secured the first ever income-contingent loans
scheme for graduate degrees, which we will protect and seek to
extend.

We will:

¢ Ensure that all universities work to widen participation across the
sector, prioritising early intervention in schools and colleges. This
will include running summer schools and setting up mentoring
programmes between students or alumni and school pupils.

« Require universities to be transparent about their selection
criteria.

¢« Work with university ‘mission groups’ to develop a comprehensive
credit accumulation and transfer framework to help students
transfer between and within institutions, enable more part-time
learning, and help more people to complete qualifications.

¢ Improve the Key Information Set and explore the option of
a standardised student contract. We will legislate to reform
regulation of the higher education sector, improving student
protection.

¢ Establish a review of higher education finance within the next
Parliament to consider any necessary reforms, in the light of the
latest evidence of the impact of the existing financing system
on access, participation (including of low-income groups) and
quality. The review will cover undergraduate and postgraduate
courses, with an emphasis on support for living costs for
students, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds.

4.8 Expanding and improving apprenticeships
and further education

More people have started an apprenticeship in this Parliament than
ever before. As we grow our economy, we must protect and enhance
adult skills training and our further education colleges. We need to
grow our skill base, especially in the technologies and industries that
are most important to our economic future. We want it to become
the norm for businesses to take on and train up young people as
apprentices in every sector of our economy, and for higher level
apprenticeships to be understood as a respected alternative to
university education.

We will:

¢ Increase the number of apprenticeships and improve their
quality, extending the Apprenticeship Grant for Employers for
the remainder of the next Parliament, delivering 200,000 grants
to employers and expanding the number of degree-equivalent
Higher Apprenticeships.

¢ Aim to double the number of businesses which hire apprentices,
including by extending them to new sectors of our economy, like
creative and digital industries.

¢ Develop National Colleges as national centres of expertise for key
sectors, like renewable energy, to deliver the high-level vocational
skills that businesses need.

¢ Establish a cross-party commission to secure a long-term
settlement for the public funding of reskilling and lifelong learning.

¢ Set up a review into the VAT treatment of Sixth Form Colleges
and FE Colleges to ensure fair treatment in relation to the schools
sector.

¢ Work with the Apprenticeship Advisory Group to increase
the number of apprentices from BAME backgrounds, ensure
gender balance across industry sectors, and encourage
underrepresented groups to apply.

¢ Identify and seek to solve skills gaps like the lack of advanced
technicians by expanding higher vocational training like
foundation degrees, Higher National Diplomas, Higher National
Certificates and Higher Apprenticeships.

Building a
healthier
society

Protecting the
NHS and
Improving health

Good health is one of the most important assets
we can have in life, and we must do all we can to
help people stay healthy, as well as provide high-
quality care when they are ill. Our NHS is the
envy of the world, and we will fund it properly,
ending the discrimination against mental health
which has existed for too long, and delivering
equal care.

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

®

Good health is one of the most important assets we can have in life,
and we must do all we can to help people stay healthy, as well as
provide high-quality care when they are ill.

Our NHS is the envy of the world, and we will fund it properly,
ending the discrimination against mental health which has existed
for too long, and delivering equal care.

As a nation, we are living longer but that means we have more
people living with conditions like cancer, diabetes and dementia who
need care and support to live with dignity and the maximum degree
of independence. We must set the highest standards in care, with
a well-trained and motivated workforce, and get health and care
services to work together without artificial boundaries.

Health and wellbeing are affected by far more than just the quality
of health and care services. Liberal Democrats will act to ensure
that everything government does supports people to improve their
wellbeing: we will work to improve the wider factors that affect our
health like warm homes, good air quality and access to healthy food
so everyone can have the best opportunity to lead a healthy life.

PM at-Yere) qe Mey PX-VIN-1 ag A Promise of More

Increased the NHS budget every
year in real terms, helping fund nearly
10,000 more doctors and 7,000 more
nurses

Improved access to talking therapies:
2.6 million patients have been treated
since 2010

£400m invested to give carers a
break with our respite fund

Capped the cost of care, so older
people can afford to get the help they
need

The NHS is our most treasured public service. Liberal Democrats
are committed to the founding principles of the NHS as a taxpayer-
funded system, free at the point of use. To ensure this principle is
maintained even as demand for health care grows, we will give the
NHS the investment it needs. We are the only party with a credible
plan to deliver the extra £8 billion NHS leaders know our health
service in England needs by 2020, with the appropriate boost to
funding for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland too.

We will:

¢ Always ensure access to health care is based on need not ability
to pay and that the NHS remains free at the point of delivery.
¢ Deliver the money needed for England’s NHS by:
“* Continuing real-terms protection of the NHS budget until

we have balanced the books in 2017/18 — with a £1 billion
boost on top of this protection. We made a start towards
this £1 billion increase in the Budget by securing a £250m a
year investment in mental health.

“+ Increasing NHS spending in line with economic growth
from then on.

¢« These commitments mean NHS funding in England will be at
least £8 billion higher a year in real terms by 2020. This will lead
to higher funding for the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish
governments, too, which Liberal Democrats believe should be
spent on their health services.

¢ Invest half the initial £1 billion in providing care in people’s own
homes and communities, preventing emergency admissions and
making it easier to discharge people after a hospital stay - and so
relieving pressures on all hospital services.

« Make sure the NHS is funded and organised to carry out
diagnostic tests and necessary treatments in a timely and
effective manner, so that waiting times meet public expectations
without distorting clinical priorities.

¢ Join up health and care at national level, shifting full responsibility
for care policy and funding to the Department of Health.

To ensure the NHS is safeguarded for the long term we will
commission a non-partisan Fundamental Review of NHS and social
care funding this year. We will involve as many people as possible in
this nationwide consultation.

One in four of us will experience mental health problems, but for
decades mental health has been the last in the queue for funding
and attention. Mental health problems cost the country as much
as £100 billion each year yet less than a quarter of people with
depression get the treatment they need.

In 2012, we called a halt to this and wrote equality for mental
health into law. We are now making real progress, introducing the
first ever waiting time standards in mental health. We have invested
£400m in increasing access to talking therapies and £150m in help
for people with eating disorders, but there is still a long way to go.
That is why we will increase mental health spending in England’s
NHS by £500m a year by 2016/17 — half of which we delivered in
this year’s Budget — and provide the cash for similar investments in
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

To deliver genuine equality between mental and physical health in the
NHS we will:

¢ Continue to roll out access and waiting time standards for

children, young people and adults. This will include a waiting time

standard from referral of no more than six weeks for therapy for

depression or anxiety and a two-week wait standard for all young

people experiencing a first episode of psychosis.
¢ Increase access to clinically and cost-effective talking therapies

so hundreds of thousands more people can get this support. Our

long-term goal is to see everyone who can benefit being treated,
but we will set an interim target of getting 25% of those suffering
into treatment.

¢ Transform care for pregnant women, new mothers and those who

have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth, and help them get the
early care they need.

¢ Revolutionise children’s mental health services. With the £250m
a year announced in this year’s Budget we will implement the
proposals outlined in the report of the Government’s Children’s
Mental Health Taskforce. This means building better links with
schools, ensuring all children develop mental resilience, and

getting support and care quickly to those who are struggling. Our
investment will help ensure children can access high-quality care

closer to home.

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could save millions
in fewer hospital admissions & working days lost

¢ Ensure no one in crisis is turned away, with new waiting time
standards and better crisis care in Accident and Emergency
(A&E), in the community and via phone lines. This will enable us to
end the use of police cells for people facing a mental health crisis.

¢ Radically transform mental health services, extending the use of
personal budgets, integrating care more fully with the rest of the
NHS, introducing rigorous inspection and high-quality standards,
comprehensive collection of data to monitor outcomes and
waiting times and changing the way services are funded so they
do not lose out in funding decisions in future.

¢ Introduce care navigators so people get help finding their way
around the system, and set stretching standards to improve the
physical health of people with mental health problems.

To improve wellbeing and make the UK more mental health-friendly, we
will:

¢ Publish a national wellbeing strategy, which puts better health and
wellbeing for all at the heart of government policy. This will cover
all aspects of government policy, including transport, access to
nature, and housing, at national and local level.

¢ Develop a clear approach on preventing mental illness, with a
public health campaign promoting the steps people can take to
improve their own mental resilience — the wellbeing equivalent of
the ‘Five a Day’ campaign.

¢ Support good practice among employers in promoting wellbeing
and ensure people with mental health problems get the help they
need to stay in or find work.

¢ Establish a world-leading mental health research fund, investing
£50m to further our understanding of mental illness and develop
more effective treatments.

¢ Continue to support the Time to Change programme to tackle
stigma against mental health.

¢ Ensure all frontline public service professionals, including in
schools and universities, get better training in mental health
— helping them to develop their own mental resilience as well as
learning to identify people with mental health problems.

¢ Support community services and volunteers working to combat
loneliness, particularly in later life.

We need services that fit around people’s lives, not ones that force
them to fit their lives around the care they need. This is going to be
increasingly important as our population ages and the number of &

people living with long-term conditions continues to grow. It is time
to move away from a fragmented system to an integrated service
with more joined-up care, and more personal budgets so people
can design services for their own individual needs. We believe

this should happen from the bottom up, suiting the needs of local
communities.

We will:

¢ Secure local agreement on full pooling of budgets between the
NHS and care services with a target date of 2018, consulting ona
legal duty for this. The details of how services are commissioned
will remain a matter for local areas. In this way we will build on the
radical proposals to integrate health and care funding in Greater
Manchester.

¢ Continue to develop Health and Wellbeing Boards to take a broad
view of how services can improve wellbeing in their area, ensuring
democratic accountability for local care.

¢ Combine the public health, adult social care and health outcome
frameworks into a single national wellbeing outcomes framework
to ensure the NHS and local government work together towards
common goals.

¢ Support new joined-up services such as GPs providing services
like scans and blood tests closer to home, or hospitals having GP
surgeries within A&E departments.

¢ Encourage the development of joined-up health providers,
which cover hospital and community services, including GPs,
learning from international best practice. We will permit NHS
commissioners and providers in a local area to form a single
integrated health organisation where appropriate.

¢ Work with Monitor to reform NHS funding systems, moving away
from payments for activity to tariffs that encourage joined-up
services and preventive care.

Liberal Democrats are committed to repealing any parts of the Health
and Social Care Act 2012 which make NHS services vulnerable to
forced privatisation through international agreements on free markets
in goods and services. We will end the role of the Competition and
Markets Authority in health, making it clear that the needs of patients,
fairness and access always come ahead of competition, and that
good local NHS services do not have to be put out to tender. After
determined negotiations, we now have a clear guarantee from the EU
that member states’ rights to provide public services directly and not
open them up to competition are explicitly enshrined in the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and we will ensure this
remains the case for TTIP and any future trade agreements.

©

Most people’s experience of the NHS is their local GP, or the nurses
and support staff who visit them at home or work in community
clinics. Better access to care in GP surgeries and closer to home is
better for patients and will also help reduce pressure on hospitals,
A&E departments and ambulances.

We will:

« Ensure easier access to GPs, expanding evening and weekend
opening, encouraging phone and Skype appointments,
encouraging GPs to work together in federations, and allowing
people more choice.

« Encourage GPs and other community clinicians to work in
disadvantaged areas though our Patient Premium.

¢ Better utilise the network of community pharmacists across the
country so they become the first point of contact for advice on
minor illnesses and are joined-up with GPs and community health
teams.

¢ Encourage health services to link up with Local Authority social
care teams and voluntary services to join up care.

¢« Review the rules for exemption from prescription charges to
ensure they are fair to those with long-term conditions and
disabilities.

5.5 Aiming higher: following the evidence to
improve health and care

We will set ambitious goals so everything we do in the NHS is
focused on helping people in Britain live longer, healthier, lives. Early
diagnosis is absolutely crucial and can make a life-saving difference,
so we will support screening programmes where these are proven
to be both clinically and cost-effective. It is also vital we invest in
research to develop new treatments and find new ways of delivering
innovative treatments in affordable ways.

We will:

¢ Set ambitious goals to improve outcomes for the most serious
life-threatening diseases like cancer and long-term conditions like
dementia.

¢« Work towards a global deal to release significant additional funds for
finding a cure or preventive treatment for dementia, doubling NHS

research spend for this condition by 2020.

¢ Set clear goals for earlier diagnosis and improved aftercare for
conditions like cancer and heart disease.

¢ Promote evidence-based ‘social prescribing’ of sport, arts and other
activity to help tackle obesity, mental health problems and other
health conditions, and work to widen the evidence base.

¢ Continue to introduce evidence-based screening programmes,
encouraging increased participation with informed consent.

¢ Improve patient safety by updating the laws on regulation of health
professionals and on cosmetic procedures.

¢ Ensure targets in the NHS are evidence-based and do not distort
Clinical priorities.

¢ Improve support for groups that often face lower standards of care,
such as older people and people with mental health problems or
learning disabilities.

¢ Get the best for the NHS out of innovative medicines and treatments
while continuing to ensure value for money for the NHS in
negotiations on the cost of medicines, promoting the use of generic
medicines where appropriate.

¢ Support, including through rules on public funding and research,
moves towards ensuring all clinical trials are registered, with their
methods and summary results reported in public.

We will develop a just settlement for haemophiliacs who were given
contaminated blood, and their families.

It is better for patients and for the NHS if we keep people healthy in
the first place, rather than just waiting until people develop illnesses
and come for treatment. This means doing more to promote healthy
eating and exercise, making people aware of the dangers of smoking
and excessive consumption of alcohol and other drugs, and helping
to improve mental health and wellbeing.

In government we have taken significant steps, taking tobacco
off display in shops and introducing standardised packaging,
for example. We have also returned the delivery of public health
services to Local Authorities to ensure a more coordinated and
localised approach.

Improving our environment is a vital step to improving people’s
health. By insulating homes we can reduce the number of people
who become unwell because of the cold; by tackling air pollution
we can attack the root causes of many deaths; by opening up more
sports facilities and building more cycle routes we can cut obesity
and reduce heart problems.

We will:

¢ Support effective public awareness campaigns like Be Clear on
Cancer, working closely with charities to raise awareness of the signs
and symptoms of killer diseases.

¢ Keep public health within local government, where it is effectively
joined-up with preventive community services.

¢ Restrict the marketing of junk food to children, including restricting
TV advertising before the 99m watershed, and maintain the effective
‘Five a Day’ campaign.

¢ Encourage the traffic light labelling system for food products and
publication of information on calorie, fat, sugar and salt content in
restaurants and takeaways.

« Reduce smoking rates, including by completing the introduction of
standardised packaging for tobacco products. We will introduce
a tax levy on tobacco companies so they fairly contribute to the
costs of health care and smoking cessation services, subject to
consultation on the detailed design and practicalities.

¢ Carefully monitor the growing evidence base around electronic
cigarettes, which appear to be a route by which many people are
quitting tobacco, and ensure restrictions on marketing and use
are proportionate and evidence-based. For example, we support
restrictions on advertising which risks promoting tobacco or targets
under 18s, such as those introduced in 2014, but would rule out a
statutory ban on ‘vaping’ in public places.

¢ Introduce Minimum Unit Pricing for alcohol, subject to the outcome
of the legal challenge in Scotland, and support the greater use
of Local Authority powers and criminal behaviour orders to help
communities tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder.

« Pass a Nature Act to increase access to green spaces and a Green
Transport Act to cut air pollution.

The number of family carers is rising, including in the ‘sandwich
generation’ who find themselves trying to care for their children and
their parents at the same time. Carers are unsung heroes and we
need to do more to help them. We have already invested £400m in
carers’ breaks, but we can and must go further.

We will:

¢ Introduce an annual Carer’s Bonus of £250 for carers looking after
someone for 35 hours or more each week.

¢ Work to raise the amount you can earn before losing Carer’s
Allowance from £110 to £150 a week.

¢ Consult on introducing five days’ paid additional ‘care leave’ a
year for carers who qualify for the Carer’s Allowance.

¢ Give the NHS a legal duty to identify carers and develop a Carer’s
Passport scheme to inform carers of their rights in the NHS, like
more flexible visiting hours, assert their role as expert partners in
care and gain access to support.

Although we want to support people to remain independent as long
as possible, many people will eventually need to rely on the care
system. Liberal Democrats fought hard to secure the cap on the cost
of care that will be introduced in 2017, but the quality of care is vital
too.

We have introduced rigorous new inspections under the Chief
Inspector of Social Care and new guidance to end the use of fifteen-
minute visits. We will end ‘care cramming’, which turns care workers
into clockwatchers rushing between jobs. We are clamping down on
care workers being paid less than the National Minimum Wage by
resourcing and directing HMRC to pursue and prosecute providers
who exploit their staff.

We will:

¢ Finish the job of implementing the Dilnot Report proposals for a
cap on the cost of social care.

¢ Provide more choice at the end of life, and free end-of-life social
care for those placed on their local end-of-life register if evidence
shows it is affordable and cost effective.

¢ Ask the Care Quality Commission to showcase examples of good
and bad practice in care commissioning by Councils.

¢ Raise the professional status and training of care home managers
through statutory licensing.

¢ Ensure those who work in the care sector are properly trained and
suitable to practice by introducing a statutory code of conduct
backed up by a care workers’ suitability register.

¢ Work with local government and providers to promote paying a
Living Wage.

78

Better places
to live

Communities,
farming and the
natural
environment

Liberal Democrats are the only major party that
takes seriously the responsibility of protecting
our natural environment. We believe it is vital to
make sure everyone has access to clean water,
clean air and green spaces. We want to hand
Our countryside and green spaces on to the next
generation in a better condition than when we
were children.

Liberal Democrats are the only major party that takes seriously the
responsibility of protecting our natural environment. We believe it
is vital to make sure everyone has access to clean water, clean air
and green spaces. We want to hand our countryside and green
spaces on to the next generation in a better condition than when
we were children. That is why we have consistently defended the
natural environment in government, bringing forward plans for a
5p charge for plastic bags, planting a million extra trees in England
and ensuring Natural England remains a strong and independent
organisation able to speak up for nature. We have fought to protect
the Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and we
have increased public access to our coastal paths.

Liberal Democrats are proud to represent a large part of rural
Britain and many farming constituencies. We believe a fair society
is one where people can afford to work and live in the countryside,
and where farmers get the support they need. We want them to
have a prosperous, sustainable future, and help them cope with
the challenges facing them, from floods to animal diseases. That is
why we introduced the Groceries Code Adjudicator to ensure large
supermarkets treat their suppliers lawfully and fairly. We have spent
£3.2 billion on flood management and defences over the course of
this Parliament. Liberal Democrats have kept farming and the natural
environment at the top of the agenda over the past five years. We
will ensure it remains a priority in the next Parliament.

PM at-Yere) ce Mey PX-VIN-1 ag A Promise of More

Planted a million trees and protected
our national forests by blocking plans
to sell them off

Introduced a 5p charge on
throwaway plastic bags to
reduce waste

£500m investment package to
promote Ultra Low Emission vehicles
which will cut emissions and improve
air quality

Halted the Post Office closure
programme and brought broadband
to 80% of homes.

Britain’s natural environment is precious. Without our green spaces,
we would live less satisfying lives; they are critical to health,
wellbeing and our sense of community. Even in cash terms, short-
term profits from exploiting the environment carry a longer-term
penalty in squandered resources, clear-up costs and the impact on
health. ~
We will ensure that protecting the natural environment becomes a =
core commitment of every government department and agency.

We will:

¢ Pass a Nature Act to put the Natural Capital Committee (NCC) a
on a statutory footing, set natural capital targets, including
on biodiversity, clean air and water, and empower the NCC to
recommend actions to meet these targets.

¢ Significantly increase the amount of accessible green space. }

We will complete the coastal path, introduce a fuller Right to
Roam and a new designation of National Nature Parks to protect
up to a million acres of accessible green space valued by local
communities.

« Place the management of public forests on a sustainable footing,
in line with the recommendations of the Independent Panel on
Forestry, and plant at least an additional tree for every child born
— about 750,000 every year — as part of a major afforestation plan.

¢ Tackle wildlife and environmental crime with increased
enforcement of environmental regulations by all relevant
authorities and higher penalties to ensure environmental crime is
not a financial risk worth taking.

¢ Improve UK enforcement of the EU Birds and Habitats Directive.

¢ Bring forward a package of measures to protect bees and other
pollinators, including legal protection for bumblebee nests.

¢ Designate an ecologically coherent network of marine protected
areas with appropriate management by 2020.

¢« Encourage the uptake of water metering, including introducing
metering in all defined water-stressed areas by 2025, coupled
with the development of national social tariffs to protect low-
income households.

Liberal Democrats believe in the highest standards of animal
welfare. We will review the rules surrounding the sale of pets to
ensure they promote responsible breeding and sales and minimise
the use of animals in scientific experimentation, including by funding
research into alternatives. We remain committed to the three Rs of
humane animal research: Replace, Reduce, Refine.

6.2 Waste not, want not: using our resources to
generate lasting prosperity

The successful economies of the future will be ‘circular’ - where waste
and the use of non-renewable resources are minimised and recovery,
reuse and recycling are maximised. Britain has a real opportunity to
lead the way, generating sustainable prosperity and jobs.

We will bring forward a comprehensive waste strategy to build a thriving
reuse and recycling industry and pass a Resource Efficiency and Zero
Waste Act to:

¢ Task the Natural Capital Committee with producing a ‘Stern report’
on resource use, identifying resources being used unsustainably
and recommending legally binding targets for reducing their net
consumption.

¢ Use regulation both nationally and in the EU to promote sustainable

design where reparability, reuse and recyclability are prioritised, and
to reduce packaging waste.

¢ Establish a coherent tax and regulatory framework for landfill,
incineration and waste collection to drive continuous increases in
reuse and recycling rates and ensure only non-recyclable waste
is incinerated, including reinstating the Landfill Tax escalator and
extending it to the lower rate and consulting on the introduction of an
Incineration Tax.

¢ Commission the Natural Capital Committee to investigate the
potential for other resource taxes, including deposit refund schemes.

¢ Establish a statutory waste recycling target of 70% in England.

¢ Encourage the growth of anaerobic digestion to produce biogas
for heat and transport, and sustainable fertiliser, working with Local
Authorities to extend separate food waste collections to at least 90%
of homes by 2020.

Our farmers do an essential job putting food on our tables and
enhancing the natural environment, but food policy has been
neglected for too long. We will encourage investment, growth,
innovation and new entrants, securing the future of the UK food and
farming industry.

Liberal Democrats want continued reform of the Common
Agricultural Policy, eliminating the remaining production and export
subsidies and supporting the development of environmentally
sustainable solutions to growing demand for food.

We will:

¢ Ensure farming support is concentrated on sustainable food
production, conservation and tackling climate change, shifting
CAP payments to the active farmer rather than the landowner.

¢ Introduce a National Food Strategy to promote the production
and consumption of healthy, sustainable and affordable food. Our
strategy will increase the use of locally and sustainably sourced,
healthy and seasonal food, including in public institutions like
schools and the NHS, implementing and expanding Defra’s Plan
for Public Procurement.

¢ Work at EU level to ensure clear and unambiguous country of
origin labelling on meat, meat products, milk and dairy products.

¢ Continue to support the Groceries Code Adjudicator. We will allow
the Adjudicator to use discretion when holding a supermarket
responsible for the treatment of suppliers so they can help ensure
farmers get a fair price. This will help all suppliers, including in the
dairy industry, which is under particular pressure.

¢ Ensure the Food Standards Agency is adequately resourced
to enforce food safety standards, and strengthen food fraud
surveillance.

¢ Help farmers and growers compete internationally by continuing
to reduce the administrative and regulatory burden and
developing an Animal Disease Strategy to reduce the risks and
costs of animal disease.

¢ Continue to improve standards of animal welfare, building on
Britain’s leadership. We will review the use of cages, crates and
routine preventive antibiotics.

¢ Introduce effective, science-led ways of controlling bovine TB,
including by investing to produce workable vaccines, in line with
the TB Eradication Strategy. We will only support extending the
existing cull pilots if they are shown to be effective, humane and
safe.

¢ Fully implement recent reforms of the Common Fisheries Policy,
working with industry and others to develop a national plan for
sustainable UK fisheries, with fair treatment for the inshore small
boat fleet.

The devastating floods experienced over the past few years are

a sign of accelerating climate change, exacerbated by changing
patterns of land use. We need to find better ways of adapting to
storms, gales, flooding and heat waves that put increased pressure
on infrastructure, water supplies and ecosystems.

We will:
¢ Prepare a national resilience plan to help the UK economy,

national infrastructure and natural resources adapt to the likely
impacts of a 3-4 degree global average temperature rise.

Work with local government to review the governance of flood risk
and land drainage, including the role of Internal Drainage Boards,
and introduce high standards for flood resilience for buildings and
infrastructure in flood risk areas.

Set up a commission to research back-to-nature flood prevention
schemes, including the role of habitats such as upland bogs

and moors, woodlands, wetlands and species-rich grasslands in
absorbing and holding water.

Implement programmes to help farmers and other land users
adapt to climate change impacts including protecting soil

and forest carbon sinks, encouraging planting in uplands and
restoring flood plains.

Review the system of approvals required by landowners to repair

Planting a new
tree for every
child born

million trees planted
Soi 0-201 5

3.75 million planted
2015 — 2020

existing flood protection measures on their land.

¢ Increase the uptake of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems to
maximise value for money for the taxpayer. We will consult on the
best ways to finance this.

¢ Update construction and planning standards to futureproof
buildings against higher summer temperatures.

Poor air quality is a significant health problem. After smoking,
estimates suggest it is Britain’s second biggest public health
challenge, responsible for the equivalent of 29,000 deaths every
year. We will pass a Green Transport Act, including a National Plan
to improve dramatically Britain’s air quality by 2020.

Our National Air Quality Plan for consultation will include:

¢ A legal requirement targeted at the most polluted towns and
cities, to create Low Emission Zones.

¢ New incentives for local schemes that cut transport-related
pollution, and encourage walking and cycling.

¢« A review of the MOT process, to see whether changes could be
introduced to cut emissions from existing vehicles.

¢ Support for new EU proposals on air quality targets and updated
plans to more quickly meet existing EU air quality standards for
concentrations of nitrogen dioxide.

To promote innovation and greener transport choices we will:

¢ Support ambitious EU vehicle emission standards, and reform
Vehicle Excise Duty to drive continuous reductions in greenhouse
gas and other pollutants from the UK car fleet and return
revenues to levels projected in 2010. This will include introducing
separate banding for new diesel cars.

¢ Encourage the market for electric vehicles, including with targeted
support for buses, taxis and light freight, and early requirements
to use low emission vehicles in the public sector. We will set a
target of 2040 for the date after which only Ultra-Low Emission
vehicles will be permitted on UK roads for non-freight purposes.

¢ Work with industry to accelerate the commercial introduction of
zero emission fuel cell electric vehicles, and facilitate the UK-wide
introduction of hydrogen fuelling infrastructure.

¢ Review the best way to keep our regulatory framework updated to
permit use of driverless and personal electric vehicles.

¢ Support options for an intercity cycleway along the HS2 route,
within the overall budget for the project.

&

¢ Implement the recommendations of the Get Britain Cycling report,
including steps to deliver a £10 a head annual public expenditure
on cycling within existing budgets. This will allow greater
investment in cycling including bike lanes, high-volume secure
bike parking, and road safety measures to keep cyclists safe.

High-quality public transport is essential to building sustainable
communities and local economies, and two thirds of public transport
journeys are made by bus. With more people commuting to work by
bus than any other mode of public transport, buses are of significant
importance to the economy. Bus services are also particularly
important to many rural and isolated communities, where one in five
of the population lives.

¢ Carry out a review of bus funding and bus policies and introduce
a five-year investment plan to give the industry and Local
Authorities certainty and help plan investment. We will support
local areas that want to bring forward plans for regulating the bus
network in their area.

¢ Give new powers to Local Authorities and communities to
improve transport in their areas, including the ability to introduce
network-wide ticketing like in London.

¢ Support the expansion of smart ticketing systems.

¢ Continue funding for local economic and sustainable transport
infrastructure through the Local Growth Fund.

« Help bus companies trade in older, more polluting buses and
coaches for newer, low emissions ones, helping develop the
market for low-carbon buses.

A thriving rural community needs local services and community
facilities like schools, public transport, local shops, cultural venues
and pubs. It needs enough homes, affordable for local families, to
ensure those services are viable. And it needs public transport:
travel costs are a major component of rural poverty. Liberal
Democrats understand the changes needed to support a living,
working countryside.

We will:
« Renew the 2010-15 commitment that there will be no programme

of Post Office closures and protect Royal Mail’s Universal Service
Obligation to deliver across the UK for the same price.

Introduce ‘retained’ police officers, fully trained officers available
to respond when needed, to increase police presence in rural
communities.

Develop the Community Budgets model for use in rural areas to
combine services, encouraging the breaking down of boundaries
between different services. This will help keep rural services like
GP surgeries, pharmacies, post offices and libraries open by
enabling them to cooperate, share costs and co-locate in shared
facilities.

Continue the fuel discount scheme for remote areas implemented
by Liberal Democrat Ministers and work with the European
Commission to extend it to further remote areas with high fuel
costs.

Work with Local Authorities to integrate transport networks in
rural areas, building on the work of Liberal Democrat Ministers’
Total Transport pilot.

Green Britain
Guarantee:
ive Green Laws

A Nature Act which will include:

A Resource Efficiency
and Zero Waste Britain
Act which will include:

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

®

¢ Placing the Natural Capital Committee ona

statutory footing. The Committee was set up
in 2012; it provides advice to the government
on the state of England’s natural assets
including forests, rivers, land, minerals and
oceans.

A requirement for government to set out

a 25-year plan for recovering nature, with
annual updates to Parliament, including how
to reverse the decline of UK species and

their habitats and ensure that bees and other
insects are able to fulfil their important role as
crop pollinators.

The introduction of a new Public Sector
Sustainability Duty, requiring steadily higher
green criteria in public procurement policy,
and placing requirements on public authorities
to act in a sustainable manner.
Implementation of the findings of the
Independent Panel on Forestry, creating a new
public body, free from political interference
and securely funded, to own and manage the
national forests.

Transposition of EU air and water quality
targets into UK law to confirm our
commitments.

A sustainable water abstraction regime, for the
public, industry and the natural environment.
The formation of a one million square
kilometre southern Atlantic Ocean reserve.

a

Implementation of
recommendations from
our planned ‘Stern
Report’ on resource
efficiency, which

the Natural Capital
Committee will conduct.
Increased penalties

for waste crimes,
aiming to move from an
average fine of £50,000
to £75,000 and to an
average sentence of 12
to 18 months.

A statutory recycling
target of 70% for waste
in England.

Regulation to promote
design that enhances
repairability, reuse and
recycling, requiring
specified products to
be sold with parts and
labour guarantees for at
least five years.

Liberal Democrats will put the environment
at the heart of government policy. We

will pass five green laws to establish

a permanent legal framework for a
Orosperous, sustainable economy.

A Green Transport Act
which will include:

¢ Astatutory target of
2030 by which time all
major, regularly used
rail routes will need to
be electrified.

¢ Arequirement that
every new bus and taxi
is Ultra Low Emission
from 2030 and every car
on the road meets that
standard by 2040.

¢ The creation of Low
Emission Zones as part
of a national air quality
plan, including a legal
requirement for the
most polluted towns
and cities.

« Anew statutory
framework that all new
rail franchises include
a stronger focus on
customers.

¢ Updates to roads
regulation to promote
innovation in transport
like driverless cars
and personal electric
vehicles.

A Zero Carbon Britain
Act which will include:

¢ Anew legally-binding
target for Zero Carbon
Britain by 2050, to be
monitored and audited
by the Climate Change
Committee (CCC).
The Climate Change
Act 2008 established
an aim to reduce
UK greenhouse gas
emissions by 80% by
2050 based on the 1990
baseline.

¢ A 2030 power sector
decarbonisation target
of 50-100g per kWh, as
recommended by the
CCC.

¢ Emission Performance
Standards for existing
coal power stations,
designed to ensure
electricity generation
from unabated coal will
stop by 2025.

¢ Giving full borrowing
powers to the Green
Investment Bank,
to boost further
investment in low-
carbon technologies.

A Green Buildings Act
which will include:

¢ A Council Tax
discount for significant
improvements in energy
efficiency in homes.

¢ Ambitious targets for
all social and private
rented homes to reach
Energy Performance
Certificate Band C by
2027.

¢ A statutory target to
bring the homes of all
fuel-poor households to
Band C by 2027.

¢ Anew legal framework
to require regulators
to facilitate the
development of deep
geothermal heat, large-
scale heat pumps,
waste industrial heat
and energy storage
systems.

¢ New powers for
government to
introduce new energy
efficiency and heat
saving regulations to
reduce heat and energy

use.

: 92

Affordable
homes for all

Meeting our
hNousing needs

For people to live fulfilled lives they need a
decent home at a cost they can afford. But that
simple ambition is getting further and further out
of reach. Britain has failed for decades to build
enough homes, and in many places property
prices and rents have risen beyond what normal
working families can afford. We have to speed up
house building and stop prices from getting any
further out of reach of families.

>

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

<>

For people to live fulfilled lives they need a decent home at a cost
they can afford. But that simple ambition is getting further and
further out of reach. Britain has failed for decades to build enough
homes, and in many places property prices and rents have risen
beyond what normal working families can afford. Meanwhile

many older people in homes that are no longer right for their
circumstances would like to move but do not have suitable options.

We have made a start in addressing this. The supply of affordable
rented housing has been increasing. We have liberalised the
planning system, while protecting important green spaces. We have
pushed government departments to release unwanted sites for
homes.

But the problems are now in danger of becoming a crisis, with
home ownership plummeting among the under 40s, many young
people priced out of even renting a place of their own, and the risk of
a new housing bubble, focused on London and the South East. We
have to speed up house building and stop prices from getting any
further out of reach of families.

PM at-Yere) ce Mey PX-VIN-1 ag A Promise of More
Restored house building from record

lows to nearly 150,000 a year

Helped families buy a home with Help
to Buy equity loans

Banned ‘revenge evictions’ where
rogue landlords evict tenants who
make complaints

Improved the energy efficiency of
a million homes since 2013, cutting
overall UK energy use by 2.5% a year

For far too long Britain has built many fewer homes than we need;
unless we build enough to meet demand, year after year, we will find
housing costs rise further out of reach. That is why we have set an
ambitious target of increasing the rate of house building to 300,000
a year. Within the first year of the next Parliament, we will publish a
long-term plan that sets out how this goal will be achieved.

Our plans will include:

¢ At least ten new Garden Cities in England, in areas where there
is local support, providing tens of thousands of high-quality new
homes, with gardens and shared green space, jobs, schools and
public transport. We will encourage rural Local Authorities to
follow these principles on a smaller scale, too, developing new
garden villages or suburbs as part of their plans for growth.

&

¢ Up to five major new settlements along a Garden Cities Railway
between Oxford and Cambridge.

« Ambitious targets for development on unwanted public sector
sites through the Homes and Communities Agency, with Local
Authorities given new powers to ensure development happens on
any unused site in which the public sector has an interest.

« Areview of Compulsory Purchase legislation to facilitate
site assembly, including for Garden Cities. We will also pilot
techniques for capturing the increase in land values from the
granting of planning permission, helping to deliver our Garden
Cities.

« A government commissioning programme to boost house building
towards our 300,000 target; where the market alone fails to deliver
sufficient numbers, government agencies will directly commission
homes for sale and rent to fill the gap. We are already piloting this
direct approach in Cambridgeshire.

« Anew government-backed Housing Investment Bank to provide
long-term capital for major new settlements and help attract
finance for major house building projects.

Good planning is essential to delivering sustainable communities.
With effective planning rules, we can ensure the new homes we
build are well connected to public transport, resilient to the threats
of climate change, safe, warm and secure, and situated in real
communities where people can easily come together. We will work
with Local Authorities to ensure they think for the long term, and use
their powers to facilitate an affordable local housing market.

We will:

¢ Put Local Authorities in the driving seat for plan-led development
by requiring them to make a plan for 15 years of housing need,
working collaboratively with neighbouring Councils where
necessary to identify sites. We will strengthen the Duty to
Cooperate to help authorities — like Cambridge, Oxford and Luton
— with insufficient space within the Local Authority boundary to
meet housing demand to grow, through development on sites
beyond the Local Authority boundaries. This long-term approach
will enable us to secure the homes we need while being much
stricter about proposals that deviate from the Local Plan. We will:
“* Create a Community Right of Appeal in cases where
planning decisions go against the approved local plan, or a
Local Plan that is emerging and has undergone substantive
consultation.

“* Not allow developers’ appeals against planning decisions
that are in line with the local plan.
“+ Not allow planning appeals solely on the basis of
challenges to the 15-year master plan.
¢ Improve housing needs assessments to ensure they respond
to demand, including through price signals, rather than simply
need, and segment more effectively demand from different kinds
of household, including high-quality shared accommodation for
young people. All areas will be expected to plan for the needs
of older people for age-appropriate housing and we will work
with Local Authorities to help people who wish to ‘right size’,
particularly in later life.
¢ Require Local Authorities to keep a register of people who want a
self-build plot in the local area and plan to meet demand for these
plots, including through ‘affordable land’: plots on which self-
builders can take a long-term lease at an affordable rent and build
or commission a home.
¢ Update planning law to introduce the concept of ‘landscape
scale planning’ and ensure new developments promote walking,
cycling, car sharing and public transport and improve rather than
diminish access to green spaces.
¢ Prioritise development on brownfield and town centre sites and
bring to an end the permitted development rights for converting
offices to residential.
¢ Enable Local Authorities to:
¢¢ Attach planning conditions to new developments to ensure
homes are occupied, tackling the growth of ‘buy to leave
empty’ investments from overseas in property hotspots like
London.
“ Levy up to 200% Council Tax on second homes where they
judge this to be appropriate.
“ Pilot new planning conditions to ensure local communities
benefit from increased housing supply.

The government has an essential role to play in supporting

the development of affordable housing. We have maintained a
substantial programme of affordable house building in the last five
years, in part enabled by designing innovative products that can
deliver new homes at a lower cost. We will continue to innovate,
enabling Local Authorities, Housing Associations and central
government alike to build many more homes.

Rising number
of private rented
dwellings

We will:

¢ Review the Homes and Communities Agency’s grant programmes
to simplify and streamline the process and enable more innovation.

¢ Allow Local Authorities more flexibility to borrow to build
affordable housing, including traditional council housing, and
devolve full control of the Right to Buy.

¢ Scrap plans to exempt smaller housing development schemes
from their obligation to provide affordable homes.

¢ Encourage affordable housing providers — both Councils
and Housing Associations — to innovate, including using the
development of homes for sale or market rent to help subsidise
new affordable homes. We will refocus the Vacant Building Credit
so it only applies to properties that have been vacant for an
extended period.

¢ Tackle overcrowding with a new system to incentivise social
landlords to reduce the number of tenants under-occupying their
homes, freeing up larger properties.

¢ Introduce a new Intermediate Housing Fund to fund intermediate
housing products, including:

“ Affordable Rent homes, at up to 80% of local market rent.

“* Shared Ownership homes, where customers buy a
proportion of the home and pay an affordable rent for the
rest.

“ Anew Rent to Own model where monthly payments
steadily accrue the tenant a percentage stake in the
property, owning it outright after 30 years.

“* New build shared accommodation at the local LHA Shared
Accommodation Rate.

We recognise that most people aspire to own their own home, and
believe in supporting people on the journey to home ownership. But
policies that promote home ownership should be focused on newly
built homes to prevent artificial pressure on prices, and should not
discriminate on the basis of previous housing tenure.

More and more people — including families — are renting in the
private sector for the long term. We believe private renting is an
important part of the housing market, but the balance has shifted
too far against the tenant, and more needs to be done to help
people making a home in rented property.

We will:

¢ Improve protections against rogue landlords and encourage a
new multi-year tenancy with an agreed inflation-linked annual rent
increase built in.

¢« Enable Local Authorities to operate licensing schemes for rental
properties in areas where they believe it is needed.

¢ Establish a voluntary register of rented property where either
the landlord or the tenant can register the property, to improve
enforcement and tax transparency.

¢ Ban letting agent fees to tenants if the transparency requirements
we introduced are not successful in bringing fees down to an
affordable level by the end of 2016.

« Extend the use of Rent Repayment Orders to allow tenants to
have their rent refunded when a property is found to contain
serious risks to health, and withhold rent from landlords who have
not carried out court-ordered improvements within a reasonable
period of time.

¢ Introduce a new Help to Rent scheme to provide government-
backed tenancy deposit loans for all first-time renters under 30.

¢ Conduct a full review of the help single people get under
homelessness legislation.

Warming our homes is an essential part of the fight against climate
change, and also vital to keep bills affordable. Energy prices

in Britain are lower than the EU average but our bills are higher
because our homes are so poorly insulated. We have made huge
advances in this Parliament, increasing standards for newly built
homes, and improving more than a million homes in just two years.
In the next Parliament we will go further, ensuring at least four million
homes are improved by 2020, not only lowering bills and helping to
tackle the scourge of fuel poverty, but generating jobs too.

We will:

« Remove exemptions in the Zero Carbon Standard for new homes,
increasing the standard steadily and extending it to non-domestic
buildings from 2019. We will promote the development of off-site
manufacturing techniques, which have been shown to improve
energy performance of buildings.

¢« Pass anew Green Buildings Act to set new energy efficiency
targets, including a long-term ambition for every home to reach at
least an energy rating of Band C by 2035.

Act to tackle fuel poverty, ensuring all low-income homes are
brought up to Band C by 2027, with continued support for the
Green Deal Communities programme, enabling local Councils to
provide help street by street.

Improve the standard of private rented and social housing,
requiring these homes to be upgraded to Band C by 2027.
Introduce incentives to help everyone invest in energy efficiency:

“- A Council Tax reduction of at least £100 for 10 years, when
the resident’s home has an energy saving improvement of
at least two bands.

“+ A new Feed Out Tariff for investment in solid wall insulation,
the most expensive and difficult energy saving investment
for some homes.

Reform the Green Deal ‘pay as you save’ scheme into a new
Green Homes Loan Scheme, funding renewable heat and
electricity alongside energy efficiency.

Boost community energy efficiency by empowering the Green
Investment Bank to develop innovative financial products for
whole street or district-wide energy efficiency retrofits.

Develop a range of targeted, innovative programmes to support
the above, including infrastructure funding where appropriate,
such as:

* ‘Insulation on prescription’ to link up the NHS with the fuel
poverty agenda.

“ An Off-Gas-Grid Strategy to help rural areas benefit from
new technologies.

“- Interest-free loans to fund energy efficiency home
improvements.

Affordable homes for all | Meeting our housing need

©

102

Freedom and
opportunity

Equal rights
for all

Liberal Democrats have always been champions
of liberty and human rights. Freedom of
expression has recently been under renewed
attack, and siren voices call for us to sacrifice
freedom to gain illusory security. Liberal >
Democrats reject this false choice: true security
for individuals and for our nation must be built
on a platform of equal rights and civil liberties.
Discrimination and inequality can hold people
back just as much as a lack of legal freedoms.
Opportunities are not equally distributed in
modern Britain. That must change, and will with
Liberal Democrats in government.

<

a rey

=

i Cums Tall

Liberal Democrats have always been champions of liberty and
human rights. No one can make the most of their lives if their basic
freedoms are violated. This election comes just a month before we
celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, a foundation stone
of our liberties. Legal protections have come a long way since then,
but as society and technology becomes more complex there is a
never-ending struggle to reassert the principle of individual liberty.
Freedom of expression has recently been under renewed attack,
and siren voices call for us to sacrifice freedom to gain illusory
security. Liberal Democrats reject this false choice: true security for
individuals and for our nation must be built on a platform of equal
rights and civil liberties.

Discrimination and inequality can hold people back just as much
as a lack of legal freedoms. Opportunities are not equally distributed
in modern Britain. Where you are from, what your parents did, your
ethnicity, health, sexuality and gender still too often affect your
chances in life, your educational attainments, your work prospects,
how you are treated by the police and the justice system, and
even how long you will live. That must change, and will with Liberal
Democrats in government.

PM at-Yere) qe Mey im PL-VIN- ag A Promise of More

Scrapped ID cards and blocked the
so-called Snooper’s Charter that
would have monitored everyone’s
internet use

Freedoms Act to cut intrusive CCTV,
stop fingerprinting children in schools
and stop aggressive wheel clamping

Reduced the gender pay gap and
increased the number of women on
boards

Stopped locking up children of
asylum seekers and strengthened
rules on police stop and search

Introduced equal marriage for gay
and lesbian couples

A fair society should treat its citizens equally and with dignity. In this
Parliament, thanks to Liberal Democrats in government, there have
been key advances in the fight for equality — like introducing same-
sex marriage and banning age discrimination. But we must continue
our work to fight prejudice and discrimination based on race, age,
religion or belief, gender, sexuality, and disability. We will enact the
remaining unimplemented clauses of the Equality Act 2010.

©

Freedom and opportunity | Equal rights for all

@

Our Support for

Sex between men
decrimnalised in
England and Wales

Law in Scotland brought
into line with England
and Wales

Liberal Democrats
oppose Section 28,
which banned teachers
from presenting
homosexuality as
acceptable

Allowing trans people
to change the gender
on their birth certificate
becomes Liberal
Democrat policy

Liberal Democrats
adopt official policy

that asylum seekers
should not be deported
if they face imprionment,
torture or murder as a
result of their sexuality

Liberal Democrats
become the first major
party to create policy on
Equal Marriage

Equal Marriage becomes
law on 17th July 2013

Liberal Party becomes
the first party to commit
to a Gay Rights policy

Age of consent lowered
to 16 and finally made
equal between gay and
straight people

Civil partnerships
introduced

The first couple married
on March 29th at the
stroke of midnight

To advance the cause of women and gender equality we will:

¢ Set an ambitious goal to see a million more women in work by
2020 thanks to more jobs, better childcare, and better back-to-
work support.

¢ Challenge gender stereotyping and early sexualisation, working
with schools to promote positive body image and widespread
understanding of sexual consent law, and break down outdated
perceptions of gender appropriateness of particular academic
subjects.

¢ Work to end the gender pay gap, including with new rules on
gender pay transparency.

¢ Continue the drive for diversity in business leadership,
maintaining momentum towards at least 30% of board members
being women and encouraging gender diversity among senior
managers, too. We will work to achieve gender equity in
government programmes that support entrepreneurs.

To promote equality in relationships and for LGBT+ individuals, we will:

¢ Give legal rights and obligations to cohabiting couples in the
event of relationship breakdown or one partner dying without a
will.

¢ Permit humanist weddings and opposite sex civil partnerships,
and liberalise the rules about the location, timing and content of
wedding ceremonies.

¢ Support schools to tackle homophobic and transphobic
bullying and discrimination, and to establish a tolerant and
inclusive environment for all their pupils. We will remove schools
exemption from the bar on harassment in these areas while
protecting the right to teach about religious doctrine.

¢ Promote international recognition of same sex marriages and
civil partnerships as part of a comprehensive International LGBT
Rights Strategy that supports the cause of decriminalising
homosexuality in other countries.

¢ Seek to pardon all those with historic convictions for consensual
homosexual activity between adults.

¢ Enhance the experience of all football fans by making
homophobic chanting a criminal offence, like racist chanting.

¢ Ask the Advisory Committee on Safety of Blood, Tissues and
Organs periodically to review rules around men who have sex
with men donating blood to consider what restrictions remain
necessary.

,

To tackle the racial discrimination faced by Black, Asian and Minority
Ethnic (BAME) people we will: }

\
«108»
/

Build on the Coalition’s BAME Access to Finance report to identify
ways to encourage more BAME applicants to apply for finance
and set up small business. We will publish diversity data on
government entrepreneurship programmes and seek to achieve
fair representation of BAME communities.

Encourage businesses to ensure at least one place on their board
is filled by a BAME candidate.

¢« Monitor and tackle the BAME pay gap.
¢ Outlaw caste discrimination.
¢ Maintain funding for people to develop and improve their English

language skills to enable them to fully participate in society and
achieve their potential.
Challenge discrimination in the criminal justice system by:

“* Improving the safeguards in police stop and search powers
in England and Wales with tighter guidance and requiring
police to wear body cameras in Section 60 areas, the
establishment of which will require judicial sanction.

“* Boosting police recruitment from BAME groups.

“* Conducting a full review of the causes of the
overrepresentation of BAME individuals in the criminal
justice system.

To tackle religious discrimination and support faith and belief
communities in working together we will:

°

Continue support for the Interfaith Network to promote strong and
sustainable relations between different faith communities.
Support projects aimed at tackling intolerance such as Show
Racism the Red Card and the Anne Frank Trust UK.

Work closely with faith and community organisations, such as

the Community Security Trust (which works to protect the Jewish
community against antisemitic attacks) and the Muslim Council

of Britain, to prevent hate crime, including at places of worship
like synagogues and mosques. We are determined to combat
antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate in the UK and internationally.

To empower people with disabilities to live full lives and achieve their
potential we will:

°

Improve the benefits system for disabled people, based on the
principle of one assessment, one budget. This will bring together
support like Personal Independence Payment, Employment
Support Allowance, a replacement for the Independent Living
Fund and health and social care entitlements. We will implement
the proposals set out in the 2015 Green Paper on Learning
Disabilities.

¢ Ensure disabled people who need an extra room are entitled to
one in any assessment of their Housing Benefit needs.

¢ Help greater numbers of disabled people work by encouraging
employers to shortlist any qualified disabled candidate and
providing advice about workplace adaptation.

¢ Maintain Disabled Students’ Allowance to ensure students with
disabilities receive appropriate support in their university studies,
and review the impact of any changes to consider additional
protections for the most vulnerable students with disabilities.

¢ Make it easier to get around by:

“¢ Making more stations wheelchair accessible and giving
wheelchair users priority over children’s buggies when
space is limited.

“ Bringing into effect the provisions of the 2010 Equality Act
on discrimination by private hire vehicles and taxis.

“ Improving the legislative framework governing Blue
Badges.

“+ Building on our successes in improving wheelchair access
to improve accessibility of public transport for people with
other disabilities, including visual and auditory impairment.

“ Setting up a benchmarking standard for accessible cities.

¢ Tackle disability hate crime by ensuring proper monitoring of
incidents by police forces and other public authorities.

¢ Formally recognise British Sign Language as an official language
of the United Kingdom.

To ensure the highest standards of equality and fairness in public
services we will:

¢ Maintain the Public Sector Equality Duty and encourage external
providers to the public sector to follow best practice in terms of
diversity.

¢ Prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion in the provision
of public services.

¢« Move to ‘name blank’ recruitment wherever possible in the public
sector.

¢ Replicate the civil service accelerated programme for
underrepresented groups across the public sector.

¢ Require diversity in Public Appointments. We will introduce
a presumption that every shortlist should include a BAME
candidate. We will establish an independent committee that will
monitor the drive for greater diversity in public appointments and
verify the independence of the appointment process to public
bodies, boards and institutions.

¢ Work to ensure the shift to Digital by Default for public services
does not leave people behind, by upholding the highest standards }

of accessibility in digital services and maintaining government
programmes on digital inclusion.

As the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris showed, freedom of
expression cannot be taken for granted. In an open society there
can be no right ‘not to be offended’, which is why Liberal Democrats
in government have strengthened the law to make it harder for
prosecutions to be brought for using ‘insulting words', and have
led the way in protecting journalists’ sources under the 2000
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Yet censorship and
self-censorship are still rife, and the threat of prosecution can have
a chilling effect on the willingness of people to speak out against
injustice and corruption. To change this and promote investigative
journalism, we will:

¢ Introduce statutory public interest defences for exceptional cases
where journalists may need to break the law (such as RIPA, the
2010 Bribery Act, and the 1998 Computer Misuse Act) to expose
corruption or other criminal acts.

¢ Ensure judicial authorisation is required for the acquisition of
communications data which might reveal journalists’ sources or
other privileged communications, for any of the purposes allowed
under RIPA; and allow journalists the opportunity to address
the court before authorisation is granted, where this would not
jeopardise the investigation.

« Undertake a post-legislative review of the 2013 Defamation Act,
which Liberal Democrats drove through Parliament, to ensure the
new provisions are reducing the chill of libel threats.

¢ Introduce, after consultation on the detail, the changes to
the 1998 Data Protection Act recommended by Lord Justice
Leveson to provide a fairer balance between personal privacy
and the requirements of journalism, ensuring that the position of
investigative journalists is safeguarded.

To promote the independence of the media from political influence
we will remove Ministers from any role in appointments to the BBC
Trust or the Board of Ofcom.

To guarantee press freedom, we will pass a British ‘First
Amendment’ law, to require the authorities and the courts to have
regard to the importance of a free media in a democratic society.

To nurture public interest journalism and protect the public from
press abuse, we are committed to a system of accountability that is
totally independent of both government and the newspaper industry,
as set out in the Royal Charter on Press Regulation.

We share the hope of Lord Justice Leveson that the incentives
for the press to sign up to genuinely independent self-regulation
will succeed. But if, in the judgment of the Press Recognition Panel,
after 12 months of operation, there is significant non-cooperation
by newspaper publishers, then —- as Leveson himself concluded —
Parliament will need to act, drawing on a range of options including
the legislative steps necessary to ensure that independent self-
regulation is delivered. Where possible, we would seek to do this
on the same cross-party basis that achieved the construction of the
Leveson scheme by the Royal Charter.

Liberal Democrats believe security and liberty are two sides of the
same coin: you cannot have one without the other. The police and
intelligence agencies do vital work to protect the public and we
are rightly proud of them. But we always have to be vigilant that
the state does not overreach itself, as it has done at times through
corruption, heavy-handedness or illiberal laws.

We will:

¢ Ensure proper oversight of the security services.

¢ Establish in legislation that the police and intelligence agencies
should not obtain data on UK residents from foreign governments
that it would not be legal to obtain in the UK under UK law.

¢ Back a full judicial enquiry into complicity in torture if the
current investigation by the Commons Intelligence and Security
Committee investigation fails to get to truth.

¢ End indefinite detention for immigration purposes.

¢ Introduce restrictions on the indefinite use of police bail.

¢ Require judicial authorisation for the use of undercover police
officers to infiltrate alleged criminal groups.

¢ Get to the full truth about corrupt practices in parts of the police
and the press by ensuring that the Daniel Morgan Panel Inquiry
is completed expeditiously and that Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry
starts as soon as the criminal prosecutions in the hacking scandal
are completed.

¢ Identify practical alternatives to the use of closed material
procedures within the justice system, including the provisions of
the 2013 Justice and Security Act, with the aim of restoring the
principle of open justice.

In the modern digital age, the power of the state and of corporate
interests can threaten our privacy and liberty. We have achieved
much in rolling back the over-mighty state — passing the first ever
Protection of Freedoms Act to restore lost civil liberties, securing
the ongoing root and branch review of RIPA and legislating for the
creation of a Privacy and Civil Liberties Board — but we cannot

be complacent. There will be a complete overhaul of surveillance
powers in 2016. We need to ensure this and other opportunities are
seized as a chance to control excessive state power, and ensure
that in an era when surveillance is easier than ever before, we
maintain the right to privacy and free speech. Privacy should always
be the norm for personal data, meaning surveillance must always
be justified and proportionate and any demand to read private
encrypted communications must be targeted and proportionate.

We will:

¢ Pass a Digital Bill of Rights, to define and enshrine the digital
rights of the citizen.

¢ Safeguard the essential freedom of the internet and back net
neutrality, the principle that internet service providers should
enable access to all lawful content and applications regardless of
the source, and without favouring or blocking particular products
or websites.

¢ Oppose the introduction of the so-called Snooper’s Charter.
We blocked the draft Communications Data Bill and would
do so again. Requiring companies to store a record of
everyone’s internet activities for a year or to collect third-
party communications data for non-business purposes is
disproportionate and unacceptable, as is the blanket surveillance
of our paper post.

¢ Set stricter limits on surveillance and consider carefully the
outcomes of the reviews we initiated on surveillance legislation by
the Royal United Services Institute and the Independent Reviewer
of Terrorism Legislation David Anderson QC. We are opposed to
the blanket collection of UK residents’ personal communications
by the police or the intelligence agencies. Access to metadata,
live content, or the stored content of personal communications
must only take place without consent where there is reasonable
suspicion of criminal activity or to prevent threats to life.

800 years after Magna Carta, the need for written, legal guarantees
of our rights and liberties has not gone away. We will:

¢ Protect the Human Rights Act and enshrine the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child in UK law. We will take appropriate action
to comply with decisions of UK courts and the European Court of
Human Rights.

¢ Block any further attempts to limit the right to trial by jury.

« Pass anew Freedoms Act, to protect citizens from excessive
state powers.

Our Freedoms
Act will:

¢ Tighten the regulation of CCTV, with more powers for the
Surveillance Camera Commissioner.

¢ Extend the rules governing storage of DNA and fingerprints
by public authorities to include all biometric data — like facial
images.

¢ Protect free speech by ensuring insulting words, jokes, and
non-intentional acts, are not treated as criminal, and that
social media communications are not treated more harshly
than other media.

¢ Prevent heavy-handed policing of demonstrations by tightly
regulating the use of ‘kettling’.

¢ Reform joint enterprise laws.

¢ Ban high-frequency Mosquito devices which discriminate
against young people.

¢ Strengthen safeguards to prevent pre-emptive arrests and
misuse of pre-charge bail conditions to restrict civil liberties
and stifle peaceful protest.

¢ End the Ministerial veto on release of information under the
Freedom of Information Act.

¢ Cut back on the petty over-regulation of everyday life, like
removing licensing requirements for leafleting for community
events, liberalising the restrictions on songs and readings
at wedding ceremonies, and permitting swimming in open
bodies of water.

Our Digital Bill of

¢ Enshrine the principle that everyone has the right to control
their own personal data, and that everyone should be able
to view, correct, and (where appropriate and proportionate)
delete their personal data, wherever it is held.

¢ Forbid any public body from collecting, storing or
processing personal data without statutory authority, and
require any such legislation to be regularly reviewed.

¢ Give increased powers and resources for the Information
Commissioner and introduce custodial sentences for
egregious breaches of the Data Protection Act.

¢ Ensure privacy is protected to the same extent in telecoms
and online as in the offline world. Public authorities should
only invade an individual’s privacy where there is reasonable
suspicion of criminal activity or where it is otherwise
necessary and proportionate to do so in the public interest,
and with appropriate oversight by the courts.

¢ Ensure that privacy policies and terms and conditions of
online services, including smartphone apps, must be clear,
concise and easy for the user to understand.

¢ Uphold the right of individuals, businesses and public
bodies to use strong encryption to protect their privacy and
security online.

¢ Make it clear that online services have a duty to provide
age-appropriate policies, guidance and support to the
children and young people who use their services.

<116>
=

Secure
communities

Policing, justice
and the border

With Liberal Democrats in government, crime is
down 10%. That means fewer homes burgled,
fewer communities blighted and fewer people
hurt. But there is much more to do to reduce
crime and free people from fear.

The best way to protect the public is to stop
crime from happening in the first place, whether
by designing out crime, intervening early, or with
effective punishments that challenge offenders
and address their criminal behaviour. We will
make sure the number one priority for the
Criminal justice system is to prevent crime by
cutting reoffending.

@ Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

No one can fulfil their potential if they live in fear. By ensuring our
laws are upheld, we can build strong communities with opportunity
for all.

With Liberal Democrats in government, crime is down 10%. That
means fewer homes burgled, fewer communities blighted and fewer
people hurt. But there is much more to do to reduce crime and free
people from fear.

The best way to protect the public is to stop crime from
happening in the first place, whether by designing out crime,
intervening early, or with effective punishments that challenge
offenders and address their criminal behaviour. We will make sure
the number one priority for the criminal justice system is to prevent
crime by cutting reoffending.

We have begun to tackle abuse in our immigration system, too,
closing colleges that break the rules, cracking down on illegal
working and human trafficking, and reintroducing border checks.
We will build on this record to rebuild confidence in our borders and
immigration system.

PM at-Yere) qe Mey PX-VIN-1 ag A Promise of More

Cut crime by 10%, with evidence-
based policing directed at the front
line

Improved treatment for addiction and
mental health problems in prison

More prisoners working longer hours
with wages contributing to a Victims’
Fund

National strategy on fighting violence
against women and girls and ending
the awful practice of Female Genital
Mutilation

Secure communities | policing, justice and the border force

Reintroduced border checks so we
know who is coming in and leaving
the UK

©

Crime and fear of crime are amongst the greatest threats to our
security and our ability to live our lives to the full. Our focus is on
trying to prevent crime from happening in the first place.

We will:

¢« Design out opportunities for crime, by improving the built
environment, the design of new technologies, and community
resilience.
¢ Strengthen the What Works centre within the College of Policing
and require HM Inspectorate of Constabulary to scrutinise the use &

of evidence by local forces in designing their policing plans.

¢ Build on the success of crime maps to use data more effectively
to reduce crime, working towards the publication of business-by-
business data for crimes committed on commercial premises,
and exploring the feasibility of mandatory reporting of fraud
losses by individual credit and debit card providers.

We are successfully bringing down crime and improving the
efficiency of our police forces, but there is more to do. We believe
the police could be far more effective with proper support and
shared best practice.

We will:

¢ Guarantee the police pursue the public’s priorities by replacing
Police and Crime Commissioners with Police Boards made up of
Councillors from across the force area.

« Encourage police forces and other emergency services to work
together at a local, regional and national level to reduce back
office costs and deliver efficiency savings.

¢ Support and expand Police Now, which is bringing high-flying
graduates and skilled mid-career professionals into our police
forces.

« Explore the case for transferring responsibility for more serious
national crime to the National Crime Agency, enabling local police
forces to focus on local crime and anti-social behaviour.

¢« Step up our work with EU partners to tackle serious and
organised crime.

The criminal justice system exists to protect the public from crime;
where crime does occur victims are our first priority. We need

to make sure they, and their families, are supported both in the
aftermath of crimes and throughout the justice system.

We will:

¢ Enact a Victims’ Bill of Rights.

¢ Create a single point of contact for victims to give early access to
information and support.

¢ Change sentencing guidelines to increase sentences available for
hate crimes.

¢ Give victims of crime a right to review what progress police have
made to investigate the crime committed against them including
cases where the police have declined to investigate.

¢ Give victims a right to choose restorative justice.

¢ Implement the Modern Slavery Strategy to reduce people
trafficking and support victims.

A fair society cannot tolerate today’s unacceptable level of violence
against women and girls in Britain. We have made progress since
2010 but we will not rest until women feel safe and respected.

We will:

¢ Ensure teachers, social workers, police officers and health
workers in areas where there is high prevalence of female genital
mutilation or forced marriage are trained to help those at risk.

¢ Require the teaching of sexual consent in schools as part of age-
appropriate sex and relationships education.

¢ Improve the provision of rape crisis centres and refuges for
victims of domestic violence with a national network and national
sources of funding.

¢ Protect funding for tackling violence against women and girls and
maintain the post of International Champion for preventing this
violence.

¢ Create a national helpline for victims of domestic and sexual
violence — regardless of gender — to provide support, encourage
reporting and secure more convictions.

¢ Work to ensure the whole criminal justice system updates
practice in line with the Director of Public Prosecutions’ guidance
on sexual consent.

The criminal justice system can do more to turn people away from

a life of crime. We have made progress in government, for the first
time providing probation support for offenders serving sentences
of less than twelve months. Yet still, far too many people are simply
warehoused in prison, instead of learning skills that will enable them
to earn an honest living when they are released.

We believe that a large prison population is a sign of failure to
rehabilitate, not a sign of success. So our aim is to significantly
reduce the prison population by using more effective alternative
punishments and correcting offending behaviour.

Labour Lib Dems

10000

9000

8000

7000

6000

2011

5000

This shows the falling trend in crime from the Crime
Survey England and Wales.

We will:

¢ Prioritise prison for dangerous offenders and those who commit
the most serious offences with increased use of tough non-
custodial punishments including weekend or evening custody,
curfews, unpaid work in the community and GPS tagging. This
will enable us to introduce a presumption against short-term
sentences that will help reduce the prison population and cut
crime.

¢ Promote Community Justice Panels and other local schemes
designed to stop problems from escalating.

¢ Extend the role of the Youth Justice Board to all offenders aged
under 21, give them the power to commission mental health
services and devolve youth custody budgets to Local Authorities.

¢ Create a Women’s Justice Board, modelled on the Youth Justice
Board, to improve rehabilitation of female offenders.

¢ Reform prisons so they become places of work, rehabilitation
and learning, with offenders receiving an education and skills
assessment within one week, starting a relevant course and
programme of support within one month and able to complete =
courses on release.

¢ Improve prison governance and accountability with a new value
added measure to assess progress in reducing reoffending,
providing education and tackling addiction and mental health
issues, enabling good prisons to earn greater autonomy. We will
strengthen the independence of the Chief Inspectors of Prisons
and Probation.

¢ Provide experts in courts and police stations to identify where
mental health or a drug problem is behind an offender’s behaviour
so they can be dealt with in a way that is appropriate. We will pilot
US-style drug and alcohol courts.

¢ Strengthen the ‘realistic prospect of custody’ test to reduce
the use of remand for suspected offenders who can be safely
monitored in the community and are unlikely to receive a prison
sentence if found guilty.

Liberal Democrats will adopt the default position that — unless there
are strong reasons to the contrary in specific cases — public servants
rather than commercial organisations should provide detention,
prison, immigration enforcement and secure units.

Access to justice is an essential part of a free society anda
functioning legal system. In this Parliament we have had to make
significant savings from the Legal Aid budget, but in the next
Parliament our priority for delivering efficiency in the Ministry of
Justice should be prison and court reform, using technology and
innovation to reduce costs.

We will:

¢ Review the criminal Legal Aid market and ensure there are no
further savings without an impact assessment as to the viability of
a competitive and diverse market of Legal Aid providers.

« Reduce pressure on the criminal Legal Aid budget by requiring
company directors to take out insurance against prosecution
for fraud and permitting the use of restrained assets to pay
reasonable legal bills.

¢ Carry out an immediate review of civil Legal Aid, judicial review
and court fees, in consultation with the judiciary, to ensure Legal
Aid is available to all those who need it, that those of modest
means can bring applications for judicial review of allegedly
unlawful government action and that court and tribunal fees will
not put justice beyond the reach of those who seek it. This will
mean reversing any recent rises in up-front court fees that make
justice unaffordable for many, and instead spreading the fee
burden more fairly.

« Retain access to recoverable success fees and insurance
premiums in asbestosis claims and where an individual is
suing the police; and also for both claimant and defendant in
publication and data protection claims, except where one party is
significantly better resourced than the other.

« Promote the use of alternative buildings for magistrates’ courts
and local dispute resolution programmes like Community Justice
Panels to bring justice back into the community.

¢ Support innovation like the provision of civil justice online and
expansion of alternative dispute resolution procedures.

« Encourage the widespread use of mediation for separating
couples, while protecting access to the family courts where
necessary

¢ Develop a strategy that will deliver advice and legal support to
help people with everyday problems like personal debt and social
welfare issues, working across government and involving non-
profit advice agencies.

Terrorism and violent extremism remain a serious threat to the
United Kingdom, which requires a proportionate response.

We will:

¢ Work with religious and community leaders, civil society groups
and social media sites to counter the narratives put forward by
extremists, and create the space for the expression of contrary
viewpoints and religious interpretations.

¢ Maintain laws that provide an effective defence against terrorist
activity, including proscription of terrorist groups, Terrorism
Prevention and Investigation Measures, and Temporary Exclusion
Orders, which enable the security services to manage the return
of those who have fought illegally in foreign conflicts.

¢ Ensure we continue to provide the appropriate resources to the
police and intelligence agencies to meet the threat, including of
cyber attack.

¢ Ensure efforts to tackle terrorism do not stigmatise or alienate
Muslims or any other ethnic or faith group, and that government
supports communities to help prevent those at risk of
radicalisation from being drawn into illegal activity.

¢ Review the process of assessing threats against different ethnic
and religious communities to ensure all groups in the UK are
properly protected.

For too long the debate about effective ways to reduce the

harm caused by drugs has been distorted by political prejudice.
Around the world, countries are trialling new approaches that are
reducing drug harm, improving lives, reducing addiction and saving
taxpayers’ money. In the UK we have made good progress on
treatment but we continue to give 80,000 people a year a criminal
record for drug possession, blighting their employment chances,
and we still imprison 1,000 people a year for personal possession
when they are not charged with dealing or any other offence.

We will:

¢ Adopt the approach used in Portugal where those arrested for
possession of drugs for personal use are diverted into treatment,
education or civil penalties that do not attract a criminal record.
¢ Asa first step towards reforming the system, legislate to end
the use of imprisonment for possession of drugs for personal

\
/

use, diverting resources towards tackling organised drug crime
instead.

¢ Continue to apply severe penalties to those who manufacture,
import or deal in illegal drugs, and clamp down on those who
produce and sell unregulated chemical highs.

« Establish a review to assess the effectiveness of the cannabis
legalisation experiments in the United States and Uruguay in
relation to public health and criminal activity.

« Legislate to make the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
independent in setting the classification of drugs, while remaining
accountable to Parliament and the wider public.

« Enable doctors to prescribe cannabis for medicinal use.

« Put the Department of Health rather than the Home Office in
charge of drug policy.

The UK secures many benefits from immigration, which boosts our
economy and helps staff our public services, especially our NHS.

But we need to tackle the weaknesses in our immigration system,
which threatened to undermine confidence in it. That is why we have
led work fully to restore border checks on entry and exit. We need
to improve the administration of our system so we deal with asylum
claims and visa applications promptly and return those who do not
have a valid claim to be in the UK. Then we can start to rebuild an
open, tolerant Britain.

We will:

¢« Complete the restoration of full entry and exit checks at our
borders, to rebuild confidence in immigration control, and allow
targeting of resources at those who overstay their visas.

¢« Speed up the processing of asylum claims, reducing the time
genuine refugees have to wait before they can settle into life in
the UK and making it easier to remove those who do not have a
right to be here. We will require working age asylum seekers who
have waited more than six months for their claim to be processed
to seek work like other benefit claimants, and only to receive
benefits if they are unable to do so. We will end the use of the
‘Azure Card’ for administering benefits in the asylum system.

¢« Double the number of inspections on employers to ensure all
statutory employment legislation is being respected.

¢ Separate students within official immigration statistics, while
taking tough action against any educational institution that allows
abuse of the student route into the UK.

¢« Present to Parliament an annual assessment of skill and labour

market shortfalls and surpluses and their impact on the economy,
public services and local communities, together with an audit
report on the migration control system, allowing full Parliamentary
oversight of Britain’s migration policies.

Continue requirements for all new claimants for Jobseekers
Allowance (JSA) to have their English language skills assessed,
with JSA then being conditional on attending English language
courses for those whose English is poor.

Encourage schools with high numbers of children with English as
a second language to host English lessons for parents.

ing.

Secure communities | polic

Devolution,
democracy and
citizenship

For freedom to be meaningful, people need the
power not just to make decisions about their
own lives, but about the way their country, their
community, their workplace and more are run.
Liberal Democrats have made a good start on
modernising and decentralising the state. But we
were thwarted in some of our attempts to reform
politics. When it came to reforming the House
of Lords and giving citizens a stronger voice
with fair votes, our proposals were blocked. We
still believe these are essential changes and will
continue Our work to deliver them.

>

For freedom to be meaningful, people need the power not just
to make decisions about their own lives, but about the way their
country, their community, their workplace and more are run.

Liberal Democrats have made a good start on modernising and
decentralising the state. We have taken away the Prime Minister’s
power to call elections. We have improved Parliament with more
powers for backbenchers and more internal democracy. We have
devolved power to Councils and communities. We have enacted
the biggest transfer of fiscal power from Westminster to Scotland in
three hundred years. We have supported employee democracy and
the mutuals movement.

But we were thwarted in some of our attempts to reform politics.
When it came to reforming the House of Lords and giving citizens a
stronger voice with fair votes, our proposals were blocked. We still
believe these are essential changes and will continue our work to
deliver them.

PM a{-Yere) ce Mey m PI-VIN-1 ag A Promise of More

Passed a Lobbying Act to introduce

a register of consultant lobbyists and
curb the influence of special interest

money in elections

Fixed term Parliaments, taking away
a Prime Minister’s power to call
elections when it suits their own party

New powers for Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland, including more
financial devolution than ever before

Devolved £7 billion of funding for
transport and economic growth to
local areas in England.

Unfair votes, overcentralisation of decision-making, the power of
patronage and the influence of powerful corporate lobbies mean
ordinary citizens and local communities are too often excluded and
sidelined in politics today. We need to reform British politics to make
it more representative and more empowering of our citizens so it
commands greater public confidence.

We will:

¢ Take big money out of politics by capping donations to political
parties at £10,000 per person each year, and introducing wider
reforms to party funding along the lines of the 2011 report of the
Committee on Standards in Public Life, funded from savings from
existing government spending on politics.

¢ Protect the rights of trade union members to have their

©

subscriptions, including political levies, deducted from their
salary, and strengthen members’ political freedoms by letting
them choose which political party they wish to support through
such automatic payments. We will encourage wider participation
in trade union ballots through electronic voting.

Introduce votes at age 16 for elections and referendums across
the UK, and make it easier to register to vote in schools and
colleges.

Reform the House of Lords with a proper democratic mandate,
starting from the proposals in the 2012 Bill.

Reform our voting systems for elections to local government and
Westminster to ensure more proportional representation. We

will introduce the Single Transferable Vote for local government
elections in England and for electing MPs across the UK. We will
reduce the number of MPs but only as part of the introduction of
a reformed, fair, voting system.

Cancel the boundary review due to report in 2018. While new
constituencies would need to be established for a new voting
system, we believe constituency boundary reviews should respect
natural geographical communities, with greater flexibility for the
Boundary Commission to deviate from exact equality to take
account of community ties and continuity of representation.
Explore options to strengthen and simplify the voting rights

of UK citizens living abroad and address disenfranchisement
experienced by some.

Work with the broadcasters to formalise the process for Leaders'
Debates in General Elections, helping ensure they happen and
setting a clear threshold for those eligible to participate.
Strengthen and expand the lobbying register and prohibit MPs
from accepting paid lobbying work. We will consider carefully the
work of the independent reviewer into the impact of third party
spending regulations to ensure the right balance has been struck.
We will also remove the discrimination against third parties by
requiring political parties to include the cost of staffing in their
national expense limits in the same way as third parties now do.

To reform Parliament in particular we will:

¢

¢

Strengthen the role of MPs in amending the Budget and
scrutinising government spending proposals.

Make Parliament more family-friendly, and establish a review to
pave the way for MP jobsharing arrangements.

Implement a House Business committee to ensure that Parliament
and not the executive decides the Parliamentary timetable, ending
the ‘talking out’ of private members’ business. Building on the
Wright Committee recommendations of 2009, and experiences

of Coalition, we will conduct a full review of Parliamentary
procedures, which should formally recognise individual political
parties not just Government and Opposition.

Liberal Democrats have a proud record of leading the way on giving
greater powers to the nations of the UK. Liberal Democrat Ministers
were the ones to lead the 2012 Scotland Act and the 2014 Wales
Act through Parliament, transferring more financial autonomy to
Scotland than ever before, and Wales’ first tax powers. And in the
last months, we have given the governments of Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland the power to lower the voting age to 16.

Now we need go further. We must deliver on the promises
made to the people of Scotland and the rest of the UK to further
decentralise power. In short, we will deliver Home Rule to each of
the nations of a strong, federal United Kingdom.

Constitutional change has taken place rapidly. We now need to
make sure all the new arrangements work together coherently and
we will therefore establish a UK Constitutional Convention, made up
from representatives of the political parties, academia, civic society
and members of the public, tasked with producing a full written
constitution for the UK, to report within two years.

There are many powers that we think should be devolved on an
equal basis to the existing Parliaments and Assemblies. We will
transfer power to:

¢ Borrow for investment.

¢« Manage the Crown Estate’s economic assets.

¢ Control a range of benefits for older people, carers and disabled 10
people.

Scotland

After the independence referendum, the Smith Commission brought
Scotland’s five main parties together to agree what further powers
should be assigned to the Scottish Parliament. Liberal Democrats
ensured the package of powers reflects Scotland’s key priorities.
The Scottish Parliament should raise in tax more than half of
what it spends in its budget. A Scottish welfare system should allow
the Scottish Parliament to change the benefits regime where there
is specific Scottish need or priority, with a starting budget of around
£3 billion.
These powers and more will deliver for the Scottish people: an }

empowered and accountable Scottish Parliament in a strong and
secure United Kingdom.

We will deliver Home Rule for Scotland by implementing the
Smith Commission proposals in full in the first session of the next
Parliament. We will continue to make the case for powers currently
held at Westminster and Holyrood to be transferred directly to local
government where appropriate.

Wales

We endorse the recent St. David’s Day announcement and will
implement it in full, devolving powers over energy, ports, local
elections, broadcasting and more, and implementing a reserved
powers model.

But this announcement does not go far enough. Liberal
Democrats will go further and deliver proper Home Rule for Wales
and a Welsh Parliament by:

¢ Implementing the remaining Silk Part 1 proposals on financial
powers for Wales. We will consider the work of the Government’s
review on devolution of Air Passenger Duty (APD), with a view to
devolving long-haul APD.

¢ Implementing the Silk Part 2 proposals by:

“» Transferring powers from the UK Parliament to the National
Assembly over S4C, sewerage, transport, teachers’ pay,
youth justice, policing and in the longer term other justice
powers.

“* Devolving funding of Network Rail in relation to the Wales
network.

“* Strengthening the capacity of the National Assembly to
scrutinise legislation and hold the Welsh Government to
account.

¢ Allowing the Welsh Government to set its own bank holidays.

¢ Providing for a Welsh Parliament, preventing Westminster from
being able to override Wales on devolved matters, and devolving
the power to amend electoral arrangements for the Assembly and
local elections in Wales with a two thirds majority.

¢ Giving the Children’s Commissioner for Wales the power to
examine issues that affect children in Wales but are not within the
control of the Welsh Government.

In addition, to help create jobs and boost growth in Wales, we will
abolish the economically distorting tolls on the Severn Bridge once
the debts are paid off.

Northern Ireland

Liberal Democrats wish to see a permanently peaceful, stable,
non-sectarian and truly democratic society in Northern Ireland. We
will work constructively with the political parties in Northern Ireland
and with the Irish Government to ensure the political stability of
the Northern Ireland Assembly and other institutions of the Belfast
Agreement. To grow the economy, tackle social exclusion, overcome
inequality and deliver efficiencies in public services, Liberal
Democrats will support policies and initiatives that promote sharing
over separation and counter the cost of division. A key aspect of
this is dealing with the legacy of the past. The Stormont House
Agreement represents another stage in the intensive work necessary
to build long-term peace, stability and prosperity in Northern Ireland.
In Government we delivered on the commitment to enable the
devolution of Corporation Tax to Northern Ireland by April 2017. We
will continue to work with all parties to implement the full package
of measures in the Stormont House Agreement and address
outstanding issues. We will build on this by:

¢ Keeping under review the prospect of further devolution of fiscal
powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly and other powers that
would improve the financial accountability of the Assembly.

¢ Promoting a strong mechanism for working constructively with
civic society in Northern Ireland.

¢ Working to ensure the interface is smooth and effective between
national security and counter-terrorism policing on the one hand,
and local policing and criminal justice activities on the other.

¢ Supporting changes to the powers and internal mechanisms of
the Northern Ireland Assembly that reinforce the development
of normal, democratic principles and enhances the creation of a
shared future beyond sectarianism and division.

¢ Working with the political parties in Northern lreland to tackle the
cost of division and ensuring all Government policies in Northern
Ireland support the aim of a genuine Shared Future for all.

England

Devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland has
implications for the UK Parliament and its dual role in legislating for
England as well as the federal UK. It is possible that a future UK
government could use the support of MPs representing Scotland,
Wales or Northern Ireland to secure the passage of legislation
that only affects England, even if the majority in England were
opposed. This would be a key issue for our proposed Constitutional
Convention to address.

Liberal Democrats believe an English-only stage in legislation

©

Ss
/

affecting England should be considered, so English MPs can have a
separate say on laws that only affect England. However, this would
need to be on a proportional basis, genuinely reflecting the balance
of opinion in England, not the distorted picture generated by the
First Past the Post system.

Beyond Parliament, there is much to change to improve the way
communities in England are governed. By returning power to the
villages, towns, cities and regions of England we can drive growth,
improve public services and give people freedom to run their own
lives.

To rejuvenate local government in England, we will:

« Reduce the powers of Ministers to interfere in democratically
elected local government.

« Remove the requirement to hold local referenda for Council Tax
changes, ensuring Councillors are properly accountable for their
decisions by introducing fair votes.

¢ Build on the success of City Deals and Growth Deals to devolve
more power and resources to groups of Local Authorities and
Local Enterprise Partnerships, starting with back-to-work
support.

¢ Establish a Government process to deliver greater devolution
of financial responsibility to English Local Authorities, and any
new devolved bodies in England, building on the work of the
Independent Commission on Local Government Finance. Any
changes must balance the objectives of more local autonomy and
fair equalisation between communities.

In some areas of England there is an even greater appetite for
powers, but not every part of the country wants to move at the same
speed and there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. We will
therefore introduce Devolution on Demand, enabling even greater
devolution of powers from Westminster to Councils or groups of
Councils working together — for example to a Cornish Assembly.

Funding

The nations of the United Kingdom have long had different needs
with regard to funding. The Barnett Formula is the mechanism used
to adjust spending allocations across the UK.

The Liberal Democrats have already delivered a substantial
extension of financial powers to the nations of the UK and we will
devolve further fiscal powers to the devolved governments. In order
to ensure reliable funding, we will retain the Barnett Formula as the

basis for future spending allocations for Scotland and Northern
Ireland. This will protect the individual nations’ budgets from external
shocks like the recent global drop in the price of oil. We recognise
the findings of the Holtham Commission that the current formula
underfunds Wales and will commission work to update this analysis.
We will address the imbalance by immediately entrenching a Barnett
floor set at a level that reflects the need for Wales to be funded fairly,
and seek over a Parliament to increase the Welsh block grant to an
equitable level.

To lead a fulfilled life, people need power over more than just their
government. Liberal Democrats will spread democracy in everyday life
by encouraging mutuals, cooperatives, and employee participation and
by increasing the opportunities for people to take democratic control
over the services on which they rely. We will encourage citizens to
engage in practical social action, seeing government as an enabler and
facilitator rather than just a commissioner and provider of services.

We will:

« Aim to increase the number of Neighbourhood, Community
and Parish Councils and promote tenant management in social
housing.

¢ Encourage employers to promote employee participation and
employee ownership, aiming to increase further the proportion of
GDP in employee-owned businesses. We will change company
law to permit a German-style two-tier board structure to include
employees.

¢ Introduce mandatory arbitration for strikes likely to cause
widespread public disruption, enabling us to defend workers’
rights to strike while ensuring continued service in essential public
services.

¢ Strengthen worker participation in decision-making, including
staff representation on remuneration committees, and the right
for employees who collectively own 5% of a company to be
represented on the board.

¢ Give football fans a greater say in how their clubs are run by
encouraging the reform of football governance rules to promote
engagement between clubs and supporters.

¢ Support local libraries and ensure any libraries under threat of
closure are offered first for transfer to the local community.

¢ Spread mutual structures and employee participation through the
public sector.

Reforming
the House
of Lords

The current size of the House of Lords

Under Liberal Democrat reforms

¢ Strengthen community rights to run local public services, and
protect community assets like pubs by bringing forward a
Community Right to Buy. We will ensure planning permission is
required to convert a pub into alternative uses.

¢ Support social investment, ensuring charities and social
enterprises can access the support and finance they need
to develop and deliver innovative, sustainable solutions to
challenges in their communities.

We recognise the importance of a plural and diverse media, free
from state influence or from monopolistic or dominant market
control, in guaranteeing a vibrant national conversation. We will
therefore reform the existing arrangements for safeguarding plurality
in the media broadly in line with the recommendations of the 2014
Lords Communications Select Committee report.

We will:

¢ Give lead responsibility to Ofcom and enable it to conduct
reviews periodically, as well as when triggered by proposed
mergers and acquisitions, and enable Ofcom to set down
conditions to prevent the reach of any media company damaging
the public interest.

¢ Ensure any conditions or requirements that Ofcom lays down
following a plurality review can only be vetoed or interfered with
by a Minister after a vote of both Houses of Parliament.

¢ Use a variety of measures to ensure that there is a vibrant local
and ‘hyperlocal’ media to help inform citizens about their local
area and their local politics, including:

“* Redirecting the current subsidies for ‘local TV’, which have
failed to contribute significantly to cultural life.

“+ Extending Ofcom’s community radio grant support to
online hyperlocals, and allowing non-profit local media
outlets to obtain charitable status where the public interest
is being served.

7 aa
the world

Global action
for security and
orosperity

In amore globalised, interdependent world,
freedom for individuals is not best protected
solely by the nation state. Corporations, banks
and markets now operate across the globe

with little respect for national borders. Climate
change, one of the greatest challenges of our
age, is by its nature global. And criminals,
hackers and terrorists now operate across
borders, too. It is in the interests of all countries
to create a system of international law and
governance, both treaty-based and multilateral,
at the global level. We will ensure Britain actively
and constructively works with our allies and
partners in the European Union, Commonwealth,
UN and NATO to engage with and develop policy
responses when liberal internationalism and the
rules-based system are challenged.

cy Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

Liberal Democrats are internationalists because we respect the
rights of human beings wherever they live and understand that by
working together countries can achieve more than they can alone.
This is particularly true for a country like the UK with a rich web of
global relationships, which gives it the potential to wield greater
influence than its economic or military power alone would permit.

In amore globalised, interdependent world, freedom for
individuals is not best protected solely by the nation state.
Corporations, banks and markets now operate across the globe
with little respect for national borders. Climate change, one of the
greatest challenges of our age, is by its nature global. And criminals,
hackers and terrorists now operate across borders, too. It is in the
interests of all countries to create a system of international law and
governance, both treaty-based and multilateral, at the global level.

Liberal Democrats have worked tirelessly in government to
keep Britain at the heart of the European Union, to secure the best
deal for British citizens. Our Ministers have represented the UK
across the world on vital issues from climate change to nuclear
disarmament and secured agreements that will keep us all safer,
not least the International Arms Trade Treaty. We have stood up
for human rights, the rule of international law and humanitarian
aid, delivering for the first time on the 40 year old UN ambition for
developed countries to spend 0.7% of national income as Official
Development Assistance.

We will ensure Britain actively and constructively works with our
allies and partners in the European Union, Commonwealth, UN and
NATO to engage with and develop policy responses when liberal
internationalism and the rules-based system are challenged.

PM at-Yere) qe ey PX-VIN-1 ag

Increased aid spending to 0.7% of
national income, and guaranteed this
in law

Secured a record £23.9 billion last
year from clamping down on tax
evasion, avoidance and fraud, and
won G8 agreement on transparency
on the real owners of businesses

A Promise of More

Ensure the 2015 Sustainable
Development Goals aim to end

"poverty, protect the environment

and leave no one behind

Improve tax transparency including
in low-income countries by
extending country-by-country
reporting from banks and
extractive industries to all UK listed

i companies

Passed a law to guarantee a
referendum before Britain passes any
more powers to the EU

Agreed an ambitious EU target
of 40% cuts to carbon emissions
by 2030, and secured Rio+20
agreements on sustainable
development

Supported our armed forces and
veterans, enshrining the Armed
Forces Covenant in law

Ensure Britain plays a constructive
part in the European Union and any
referendum triggered by the EU Act

is on the big question: In or Out

Work to secure a binding global
agreement on cutting emissions,

and astronger commitment within
the EU to a 50% reduction by 2030

Focus on ensuring our armed
forces have the training and
equipment they need for the threats
of today and end continuous
nuclear weapon patrols

From the recent collapse of talks between Israelis and Palestinians
to Russian interference in Ukraine, this is a challenging time for
peace and security across the world. At times like these we need to
redouble our diplomatic efforts and work closely with our EU and
NATO partners to promote an active, rights-based foreign policy for

our mutual defence.

The UK has a proud record of playing a leading role in the
European Union and in international institutions like the UN, NATO
and the Commonwealth and should continue to do so, wherever
possible promoting our values of freedom and opportunity for all.

©

We will:

¢ Use all aspects of government policy — trade, aid and diplomacy
as well as military cooperation — to focus UK policy on conflict
prevention. This will require a joint approach across the MOD,
FCO, DFID and other departments, and we will continue to assess
UK government actions for their impacts on conflict prevention
and security. This will be a priority within the 2015 Strategic
Defence and Security Review (SDSR), which should begin
immediately after the election.
¢« Engage with and strengthen multilateral UN and treaty-based
institutions worldwide.
¢ Support the UN principle of Responsibility to Protect. This
principle focuses on the security of individuals, rather than states.
¢ Improve control of arms exports by:
“* Implementing a policy of ‘presumption of denial’ for arms
exports to countries listed as countries of concern in the
Foreign Office’s annual human rights report.
“* Requiring end-user certification on all future arms export
licenses with an annual report to Parliament on this
certification.

Should all these institutions and policies fail, we recognise it will be
necessary to consider military interventions to protect ourselves and
fulfil our international obligations. However in these circumstances,
Liberal Democrats believe the UK should intervene only when there
is a clear legal and/or humanitarian case, endorsed by a vote in
Parliament, working within the remit of international institutions
wherever and whenever possible.

In response to current major conflicts worldwide, we will:

« Promote democracy and stability in Ukraine and neighbouring
countries against an increasingly assertive Russia. We will work
closely with EU and other international partners to exert maximum
economic and political pressure on Russia to stop interfering in
the affairs of sovereign Eastern European nations, and will stand
by our obligations under the NATO treaty in the event of threats
to NATO member states. We will work with the EU to develop an
EU energy strategy that will reduce reliance on Russia’s energy
supplies.

¢ Continue to work with international partners — Western,

African and Arab — to tackle Islamic fanaticism embodied by

organisations like the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria
and Boko Haram in Nigeria. These extremist organisations pervert
Islam and carry out appalling atrocities against Muslims as well as

non-Muslims. This is a generational challenge that will take time
and patience. We favour broadening the international Coalition
against IS.
¢ Recognising that airstrikes alone will not defeat IS, continue a
comprehensive approach, in compliance with international law, to
supporting the Iraqi government in standing against IS, including:
“¢ Assistance in strengthening its democratic institutions.
“ Training the Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga
fighters.
“* Humanitarian relief to help alleviate the suffering of
displaced Syrians and Iraqis.
¢ Support the moderate opposition in Syria, who are fighting both
President Bashar al-Assad and IS. We will continue to push for an
inclusive political transition in Syria, which would enable Syrian
moderates from all sides to unite against extremism and tyranny.
¢ Remain committed to a negotiated peace settlement to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which includes a two-state solution.
We condemn disproportionate force used by all sides. We
condemn Hamas’ rocket attacks and other targeting of Israeli
civilians. We condemn Israel’s continued illegal policy of
settlement expansion, which undermines the possibility of a two-
state solution. We support recognition of the independent State
of Palestine as and when it will help the prospect of a two-state
solution.
¢ Support multilateral negotiations to stop Iran obtaining nuclear
weapons. We will continue to seek normalisation of our diplomatic
relations with Iran, including reopening the British Embassy in
Tehran and promoting peaceful dialogue between Iran and Saudi
Arabia.

The UK must be able to defend itself and the territories for which it
has responsibility, support its neighbours and allies, and engage in
humanitarian intervention. Many of the security challenges the UK
faces are shared by our partners and allies in the EU and NATO and
the UK is more effective and more resilient when we work closely
with those partners.

Liberal Democrats are clear that the security offered by our
continued membership of the EU is more crucial than ever, as are
our bilateral relationships with our key European allies. We favour
greater integration of military capabilities and procurement to
address common problems, to overcome economic constraints and
to maintain a full spectrum of defence capabilities. To achieve this,
we will build on the treaty-based arrangements we have established

©

and extend this cooperation to other suitable European partners.
Liberal Democrats are committed to meeting our national and
international obligations in security and defence. This is why in
government over the last five years we met the NATO commitment
to spend 2% of our GDP on defence, most recently restated in
the Readiness Action Plan and Defence Industrial Pledge at the
Wales NATO Summit in 2014. We are committed to completing a
comprehensive Strategic Defence and Security Review early in the
next Parliament to inform future defence spending decisions. We
recognise that the world has changed fundamentally since the last
such review. It is vital that our real security and defence needs and
international obligations are considered in the SDSR, and this is why
we wish to move towards a Single Security Budget.

We will:

¢ Conduct a Strategic Defence and Security Review in which we
will revisit and update the Future Force 2020 vision and ensure the
capabilities we are invested in are relevant for keeping Britain safe.

« Use the SDSR to establish a Single Security Budget, including not
just conventional defence spending but the work of our security
agencies, cyber defences and soft power interventions. The Single
Security Budget will be distributed by the SDSR process, as part of
an overall Spending Review. This integrated approach will ensure
spending choices follow the capabilities we need, not traditional
departmental silos.

¢« Maintain strong and effective armed forces and the capability to
deploy rapidly expeditionary forces.

¢ Set long-term budgets to invest in the right equipment at competitive
prices.

« Recognise the expansion of warfare into the cybersphere, by
investing in our security and intelligence services and acting to
counter cyber attacks.

¢« Remain fully engaged in international nuclear disarmament efforts.

¢ Step down the nuclear ladder by procuring fewer Vanguard
successor submarines and moving from continuous at sea
deterrence to a contingency posture of regular patrols, enabling
a surge to armed patrols when the international security context
makes this appropriate. This would help us to fulfil our Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty commitments and reduce the UK nuclear
warhead stockpile.

« Work for new global standards to end the use of conventional
explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas.

« Promote European defence integration where appropriate by
enhancing European defence industry co-operation.

Liberal Democrats recognise the vital role the UK’s armed forces
play in the defence of the nation and believe that it is the role of
government to safeguard the interests of service personnel and
veterans. We strongly support the Armed Forces Covenant, now
enshrined in law in the 2011 Armed Forces Act. We also propose:

¢ Transferring the Office of the Veterans’ Minister to the Cabinet
Office, so that the services of all departments can be marshalled
in support of veterans and creating a post of Veterans’
Commissioner.

¢ Improving support for personnel and veterans with mental health
problems, including alcohol dependency.

¢ Strengthening local military covenants by defining more exacting
guidelines and ensuring best practice is rolled out across all Local
Authorities.

The government in 2011 set a target for increasing the size of the
Reserves to 30,000 but it is significantly behind in achieving this
goal, with continued problems of retention. We acknowledge the
different pressures that Reserves face and propose that:

¢ Emphasis be put on improving retention and training of Reserves
at current levels.

¢ Employers be required to offer two weeks’ unpaid leave annually
to assist Reserves attending training camps.

Britain’s membership of the EU is essential for creating a stronger
economy and for projecting influence in the world. Millions of British
jobs are linked to our trade with the EU, and being in Europe puts
us on a more equal footing when negotiating trade deals with global
players like the USA and China and in countering security threats.
A modernised EU is crucial to responding to the global challenges
Britain faces, whether they are climate change, cross-border crime
and terrorism, or conflict.

If the UK were to leave the EU, trade rules would be made
without us, our voice would not be heard in climate change
negotiations and our borders would be more vulnerable. There is no
doubt the UK would be poorer and weaker if we walked away from
our closest neighbours and most trusted allies and left the EU.

But that does not mean that the institutions and policies of
the European Union are perfect and do not need reform. Liberal
Democrats are the party of reform whether that is in Westminster,
Holyrood, the Senedd or in local Councils and the EU is no
exception.

Rey ie 49.5%

=tUT ce) el-r- lam Olay (eya| Rest of the world

The European Union is the biggest export market
for British goods.

Liberal Democrats in Government have already secured
significant reforms like cutting the EU budget by £30 billion and
reforming the Common Fisheries Policy, ending the discarding
of usable fish. We have also shifted the balance of EU spending
towards jobs, growth and innovation. Only by remaining fully
engaged in the EU can we deliver the further reforms that are
urgently needed not only for the UK, but also for the rest of the EU.

We will:

¢ Work to deepen the EU single market in the energy sector, in the
digital economy and for services. We will boost British exports by
scrapping national barriers to British firms trading online and by
concluding ambitious EU trade agreements with key markets like
Japan and India. We will implement the recommendations made
by Michael Moore MP in October 2014, including publishing an
annual European Business White Paper and appointing an EU
Business Minister to lead this competitiveness agenda.

¢ Support negotiations at the World Trade Organisation as well
as an ambitious Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
(TTIP) between the EU and the USA, which could bring benefits
of up to £10 billion a year to the British economy. We will only
support an agreement that upholds EU standards of consumer,
employee and environmental protection, and allows us to
determine how NHS services are provided.

¢ Work to reform the EU to make it more efficient, reducing the
proportion of the EU budget spent on the Common Agricultural
Policy, abolishing unnecessary EU institutions like the European
Economic and Social Committee and scrapping the second seat
of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

¢ Continue to reduce the burden of EU legislation on business by
curbing unnecessary red tape, exempting small businesses from
EU rules where possible and defending the UK opt-out to the
Working Time Directive.

¢ Increase the accountability of the EU by enhancing the role of
national Parliaments in scrutinising EU decision-making and by
giving a combined majority of national Parliaments the automatic
ability to block unwanted legislation. We will strengthen UK
scrutiny of European legislation and positions taken by British
Ministers in Europe including by proposing an explicit role for
British Parliamentary Select Committees.

¢ Hold an In/Out referendum when there is next any Treaty change
involving a material transfer of sovereignty from the UK to the
EU. Liberal Democrats will campaign for the UK to remain in the
European Union when that referendum comes.

¢ Reinforce the EU’s tools for tackling cross border crime, 2

«

strengthening the role of the European Cyber Crime Centre and
reforming the European Arrest Warrant to prevent miscarriages of
justice while ensuring swift delivery of justice.

¢ Cooperate with other European countries to address
environmental threats and tackle climate change by securing
agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030
and developing the EU Energy Union.

¢ Support EU free movement, which is hugely beneficial to
millions of British citizens living in other European countries
as well as to the British economy and the public sector, for
example the thousands of European health workers who make
a vital contribution to the running of the NHS. We will prevent
any perceived ‘right to claim’ by tightening benefit rules for EU
migrants, including reducing, and ultimately abolishing, payment
of Child Benefit to children who are not resident in the UK. We will
also lengthen transitional controls for new EU member countries,
and eliminate loopholes.

¢ Cooperate with other European countries to address the
pressure of migration across the Mediterranean. We will push
for more effective EU measures to prevent the tragic loss of life
for many crossing the Mediterranean, including through greater
cooperation with anti-human-trafficking operations.

¢ Continue to work closely with other EU governments on foreign
policy issues towards Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East and North
Africa. We will build on our already close defence cooperation
with France, the Netherlands, the Nordic states and other
European countries, as the most reliable basis for British security.

In government, Liberal Democrats have led the way on international
development and aid. We have worked to end the use of rape as a
weapon of war. We have led international efforts to tackle the Ebola
crisis in Sierra Leone and, through investment in the Global Alliance
for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI), Britain is a global leader in
preventing communicable diseases.

Now, we need to build on progress made since the agreement
of the Millennium Development Goals and work to eliminate
absolute poverty by 2030 — through aid but also through economic
development.

We will:
¢« Develop a whole-government approach to development.

¢ Continue to promote private sector economic development,
ensuring this benefits local people and small businesses not just

a

a

a

Sa

multinational corporations. We will lead international action to ensure
global companies pay fair taxes in the developing countries in which
they operate, including tightening anti-tax haven rules and requiring
large companies to publish their tax payments and profits for each
country in which they operate.

Maintain our commitment to spend 0.7% of UK Gross National
Income on overseas development, which the International
Development Act 2015, introduced by a Liberal Democrat, now
enshrines in law. We will adhere to the OECD’s definition of what
activities qualify.

Conduct a full Bilateral and Multilateral Aid Review to ensure that the
Department for International Development continues to work in the
right places and through the right channels.

Continue building the resilience of poorer countries to resist future
disasters, investing in healthcare and infrastructure and training
emergency response volunteers, and respond generously to
humanitarian crises wherever they may occur.

Work to ensure the Sustainable Development Goals aim to:

“* Safeguard the sustainability of the planet.

“¢ Leave no one behind, helping the most vulnerable as well as
improving average living standards. We will ensure people do
not suffer discrimination or disadvantage because of gender,
sexual orientation, disability or ethnic origin.

“+ Eliminate absolute poverty by 2030.

Invest to eliminate within a generation preventable diseases like TB,
HIV and malaria and explore new ways to support public and private
research and development into treatment for these and other deadly
diseases and infections.

ecurity an d prosperity

Britain in the world | global action for sé

¢ Create a new civil society partnership scheme to build
links between peoples in rich and poor countries, including
partnerships between communities, trade unions or emergency
services.

The open and internationalist approach Liberal Democrats

have always adopted is particularly crucial when it comes to
environmental policy. Pollution does not respect national borders,
and wildlife and ecosystems are not constrained by political
boundaries. Challenges like climate change and deforestation are
too massive for individual countries to tackle alone.

We will:

¢ Continue pushing for a 50% reduction in EU greenhouse gas
emissions by 2030 and the greater use of EU funds to support
low-carbon investments, while ensuring the UK meets its own
climate commitments and plays a leadership role in efforts to
combat climate change.

« Work to secure agreement on a global climate treaty at the 2015
UN Climate Conference, supported by a well-financed Green
Climate Fund to assist poorer countries to tackle and adapt to
climate change.

¢ Work with regulatory bodies and financial investors to establish
a global reporting standard for fossil fuel companies on the
potential impact of future restrictions on carbon emissions on
their asset base.

« Provide greater resources for international environmental
cooperation, particularly on actions to tackle illegal trade in
timber, wildlife and fish.

¢ Argue for an EU and global target of halting net global
deforestation by 2020 — including supporting better forest law
enforcement and governance and sustainable agriculture, closing
loopholes in the EU Timber Regulation and ensuring that by 2020
only legal and sustainable timber products can be sold in the UK.

« Ensure UK and EU development aid, free trade and investment
agreements support environmental goals and sustainable
investment, including maintaining the UK’s International Climate
Fund and supporting direct bilateral programmes with developing
countries on climate change.

¢ Create a one million square kilometre southern Atlantic Ocean
reserve.

« Push for the creation of a marine nature reserve in the Arctic
Ocean, promote the highest possible environmental standards

for UK companies operating in the region and press for a ban on
EU-flagged vessels undertaking industrial fishing in the previously
unfished areas of the Arctic.

Liberal Democrats believe British foreign policy and international aid
should seek to advance human rights and democracy throughout
the world. We believe all people — regardless of ethnicity, disability,
age, belief, gender or sexual orientation — deserve a freer, fairer and
more prosperous world.

We will:

¢ Continue to support free media and a free and open Internet
around the world, championing the free flow of information.

¢ Maintain funding to BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring and the
British Council.

¢ Develop a comprehensive strategy for promoting the
decriminalisation of homosexuality around the world, and
advancing the cause of LGBT+ rights.

¢ Prioritise support, protection and equal rights for women and
girls, which is essential for effective, sustainable economic
development. We will pursue an International Gender Equality
Strategy, work to secure women’s rights to education and
freedom from forced marriage; and aim to end female genital
mutilation worldwide within a generation.

¢ Extend existing reporting rules to establish consistent
requirements on all large UK companies to report on the social,
environmental and human rights impacts of their activities and
those of their supply chains.

The recent Islamist extremist attacks on journalists in Europe are a
sharp reminder of the need to protect freedom of speech and belief
internationally. We will appoint an Ambassador-level Champion for
Freedom of Belief to drive British diplomatic efforts in this field, and
we will campaign for the abolition of blasphemy, sedition, apostasy
and criminal libel laws worldwide, having already been responsible
for ending them in this country.

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

=
a
oy

Affordable Housing 91-99
Airports 29
Alcohol 73 - 74
Animal Welfare 80
Anti-Muslim Hate 106
Anti-Semitism 106
Apprenticeships 23, 61
Arts & Culture ol}
Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic 105 - 106
Banking
poker sea Bank of England 26
preersea es Competition 24 - 25
saunas Levy 94-25
eines Sesie Separation 24 - 25
BBC 35, 108
Benefits
Sere ceesee Housing Benefit 43
a Siace selerelerals Working Age 42
porauaieres Universal Credit 41
Border Checks 124
British Business Bank 25
Business 20 - 26, 31 - 35,
61, 145 - 148
Cancer 72 - 74
Carers 74-75
Catapult Centres 24
Channel 4 35
Childcare 40 - 41
Civil Liberties 102 - 113
Climate Change 26-27, 82-85, 150
Consumer Rights 48 - 49

Countryside
Creative Industries
Crime

Cycling

Debt

Defence

Deficit

Dementia
Democratic Reform
Devolution

Digital

Digital Bill of Rights
Disabilities

Drug Reform

Early Years

Economy

Education

Electoral Reform
Employment Tribunal Fees
Energy

welemeeeriey Electricity

se eeeeceees Low Carbon

se eeeeccees Nuclear

saalea eters Unconventional Gas
England

Europe

Farming

FGM

Fiscal Rules

Five Green Laws
Flooding

Football

Free School Meals

Garden Cities

Gender Pay Gap

GP Access

Green Investment Bank

Health
Heritage
Homophobia

78 - 87
33 - 35

115 - 124
73, 86, 95

129 - 130
24, 131 - 135
33-34 111 - 113
fit 113

46 - 47, 106 - 107
123 - 124

133 - 134
31-38, 140.144:
145-148

24, 27, 99

63 - 75
33
105, 151

©

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

—
a
o

HS2 28, 85

Immigration 31 - 33, 124 - 125
Industrial Strategy 23
Infrastructure 19, 27 - 31
International

spisesintiei Islamic State 142 - 143
sisisissincisis's Israel - Palestine 143

eeecccccces NATO 140 = 143
pinignaineas Russia - Ukraine 141 - 142
ssieesnigsis United Nations 140 -142
International Aid and Development 148 - 151
Legal Aid 122

LGBT+ 104-105, 151
Libraries 15

Living Wage 45-46, 75
Local Enterprise Partnerships 24

Media Reform 35, 108 - 109, 137

Mental Health 64 - 69

Museums and Galleries ots)
Ne ee

National Colleges 24, 61

Nature 74, 78 - 81,

88 - 89, 150

NHS budget 65 - 66

Northern Ireland Wei, WS
a

Pensions 47

Police 118

Police and Crime Commissioners 118

Political Donations 129

Pollution 85 - 86, 150

Prison Reform 119-121

Public Sector Pay 19

Public Spending 19

Public Transport 27 - 29, 86

Pupil Premium 2. SIS
See

Rail 27 - 29

Recycling 80 - 81

Regional Growth Fund 24

Regulatory Policy Committee 26
i Sanne oD

Schools 51 - 58

Science

Scotland

Shared Parental Leave
Skills

Social Care
Spare Room Subsidy
Spending Review

steeeeeeees Business Tax

steeeee sees Capital Gains Tax
eaeneseaes Corporation Tax

afk ata (aisibiajsfare Council Tax

steteee sees Evasion and Avoidance
ieidisidieigevinies Green Taxes

steeeeeeees High Value Property Levy
weesceieNeN Income Tax

sivdueuense Land Value Tax

tee eeeeees National Insurance
Teachers

Terrorism

Tobacco

Tourism

Trade Unions

Trident

TTIP

TV Licence

Universities

Wales

Winter Fuel Payment
Work Programme

Young Person’s Discount Card

Zero Hours Contracts

24, 33, 57

131 - 132

45

23-24, 34 -35,
61, 75

69-71, 74-75
46 - 47

1% WS

129 - 130, 150
144

71, 147

35, 45

60

131 - 132
45

41 - 42

99

46

Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2015

This manifesto sets out Liberal Democrat policies and priorities for the United
Kingdom. The Scottish and Welsh Liberal Democrats set their own policy on
devolved matters, and for those policy areas, the proposals here apply to England
only. Our sister party, the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, makes its own policy on
devolved issues in Northern Ireland.

ISBN 978-1-910763-02-5 © March 2015

Price: £7.50

Further copies may be obtained from:
Liberal Democrat Image, The Workshop, 24 Cheyne Way Farnborough,
Hampshire, GU14 8RX

Email: info@libdemimage.co.uk

Website: www.libdemimage.co.uk

This Manifesto can be found in alternative formats at our address:
www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto.

For further information on obtaining copies of this Manifesto in alternative formats
please visit: www.libdems.org.uk/contact

Published and promoted by Tim Gordon on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, both at
8-10 Great George Street, London SW1P 3AE

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Graphic artwork by William Branton, Batool Abbas, Elizabeth Bradley
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